Neji's Summer Gift
by Sinclair San Tonava
Summary: It's the begging of Summer for the kids in Konoha, and Tenten has a gift for Neji: a kitten! How will the Hyuuga take on a kitten? How will others react? Find out now!
1. A gift?

Warning!!! Slight OOC!

**Neji's Kitten**

**Chapter 1**

It was officially the last day of missions and training for the summer. Team Gai was no exception to the excitement of Summer Break. Gai had scheduled for his team to get together that afternoon and he would treat them all to Ramen and ice cream, and then all the gennins, chunnins, and even the jounins were going swimming at the pool in town.

It was a good day. Team Gai met up with Team 7 at the ramen shop and they proceeded to head to the pool together, where the subordinates played four games of chicken and then a game of Marco Polo. Meanwhile most of the jounins watched from the side, with the exception of Gai, who insisted on joining in on a game of chicken.

The sun was going down by the time everyone was out of the pool. As Neji was about to leave he heard someone call to him. "Wait, Neji!" he turned around and saw Tenten running towards him. As she reached him he realized that he hadn't seen her a lot in the pool. Had she ran off?

She looked tired as she stopped and panted for a moment before saying, "I…I want to give you something."

Neji raised a brow. What could Tenten possibly want to give him? At that point he notice that she was cupping something in her hands. "What is it, Tenten?" he asked, not having the slightest idea and not really caring enough to use his byakugan.

She smiled and stood up taller. She held out her cupped hands in his face and his curiosity got the best of him. His eyes got wide as she slowly opened her hands to reveal a little ball of fur. Neji blinked, and he was about to ask what it was when suddenly a little furry head popped out. "A cat?" he said, looking up at Tenten with a surprised look.

Tenten nodded, looking a little embarrassed. "Ya, you see a neighbor of mine had a cat who had some kittens a few weeks ago and they're trying to get rid of the litter. She's the last one."

Neji looked down at the kitten again. It was a white kitten with big light ginger splotches and big green eyes, and she fit perfectly right in the center of Tenten's hand. As he examined it, it gazed back with those big green eyes, causing them to twinkle in the setting sunlight. Then it slowly stood up on Tenten's palm, wobbling for a second, and carefully stepped onto his shoulder. As soon as it was steady it raised onto hind paws, put one paw on Neji's cheek, and proceeded to paw at the belt strap hanging from his headband. He couldn't help but smile.

Tenten laughed. "She likes you, Neji," she said cheerfully. "Would you please take her home?"

The smile faded slowly from his face as he thought for a moment. Could he take care of a cat? He didn't have any place to keep it. He didn't have anything to feed it. He took the cat by the scruff and held it out in front of him. Its legs curled close to its body and its tail curled between its legs. It let out a soft purr and blinked at him. He had to admit, it _was _kind of cute.

He closed his eyes and made the slightest nod physically possible. Tenten picked up on it and let out a gasp of delight. "Thank you, Neji!" she said excitedly as Neji opened his eyes again. He held the cat up to his chest, still holding onto its scruff, and supported it with his other hand. Tenten laughed. "You know, if you weren't gonna take her I was gonna give her to Lee. Think of what would happen then!"

Neji shuddered. A vision of a cat in green spandex standing next to Lee and Gai with twinkling smiles came to mind. He felt as if he had saved this cat's life.

"I also have some stuff for her, too," Tenten said, bringing Neji back to reality. He watched as his bun-haired teammate took a small backpack off her back and went through it. "I have some food, a litter box, and some fresh litter." After she said this she zipped up the bag and handed it to him.

He let go of the kitten's scruff and took the bag, slung it over his shoulder, and put his hand on the kitten's back. With that he thanked Tenten shyly and headed home.

Suddenly it hit him.

_How the heck am I going to explain a kitten to Hiashi?_


	2. What is her name, Neji?

**Neji's Kitten** **Chapter 2**

"I think we should call her Creamy!"

"No, I like Milkshakes better."

"Those are disgraceful name! I think she should be named Killer!"

"But she's a girl! That's a boy's name, Daddy!"

The entire Hyuuga family stood fighting over a name for the kitten Neji had brought home. Except Neji. He sat at the kitchen table watching the kitten cower down at the three Main Branch members arguing above her. He was trying to figure out how they had come to this, how his uncle had so easily given in to the little ball of fluff. Was it because he thought she was cute, too? No, that couldn't be it. Maybe he was a cat lover? No…

"Neji! She's your cat! Why don't you decide a name for her?"

Neji jumped at his uncle's voice. He looked up. The Main Branch members now had their eyes set on him, giving him expectant stares. He was surprised. He didn't expect a side branch member to get so much respect. He slowly reached across the table and picked up the kitten. She purred in his arms and snuggled down when he held her to his chest. He thought for a moment. The name 'Ginger' came to mind. He didn't like that name. But he stuck with it for a moment. Ginger…spark? Ginger…stick? Ginger…ale? That was it! Gingerale! "Her name is Gingerale," he said.

In a simultaneous murmur the entire group repeated the name. And then all anyone could hear was Gingerale's purring in the moment of silence.

"I like it!" Hanabi squeaked suddenly, making the little cat flex her sharp claws into Neji's chest and fluff up. He winced.

Hiashi smiled. "I guess that's not too bad of a name," he seemed to decide out loud. Neji beamed in his uncle's approval in his mind. But Hiashi's face grew serious a moment later. "I better not see any messes in this house," he said sternly. "Or you're cleaning them up along with the ENTIRE house! And I don't want to see anything scratched or broken either. Including my daughters."

Neji dared to glance at Hanabi and Hinata. They both seem to have completely disregard their father's words and were instead gazing at Gingerale with sparkling eyes.

He nodded. He was used to those terms, which applied to just about everything anyway.

"Can I hold her?" Hanabi asked, holding out her arms to receive the kitten. She knew Neji couldn't say no even if he wanted to.

Neji held out the cat and Hanabi scooped her up and held her close, then flipped her over on her back and held her like a baby. Gingerale immediately stopped purring and struggled for a little bit, then with a defeated grunt, stopped.

Neji bit his tongue. He didn't like Hanabi holding his cat- _his _cat- at all.

"All right, Hanabi. Put the kitty down. You never finished your chores that were supposed to be done this morning."

Saved by the bell.

"Yes, Daddy," Hanabi replied, setting the cat down and walking from the table. Hiashi joined her, and together they walked outside to finish whatever chores that needed to be done, leaving Hinata and Neji in the kitchen alone.

Gingerale flopped to her paws and bounded over to Neji, jumped into his chest, and resumed purring like a little motor. Neji held back a childish giggle in front of his cousin.

Hinata took a spot at the chair that her sister had left and rested her chin on her arms in front of her. "She's adorable. Where did you get her?"

"hn."

"Please tell me, Neji-kun?"

"…"

"?"

"She was a gift."

Hinata became interested. "From who?"

"…Tenten."

"Really? Where did she get a kitten from?"

Neji began stroking Gingerale's head. Her purr deepened. "She said that a neighbor's cat had them. Apparently this was a the last one."

Hinata nodded as she watched her cousin gently stroke his kitten. It was very unlike Neji to talk to her so much, and it was even more unlike him to act so tenderly with another living thing. In fact, she had never seen him touch something with such a pure intent. She held back a smirk. She wondered how long it would last.


	3. Am I ever going to get any sleep?

**Neji's kitten**

**Chapter 3**

Neji was tired. He had decided to IM all night, and now it was 12:56 A.M. Gingerale had been asleep in his lap the whole time, and now as _HE _was tired, _SHE _was waking up. He feared that if he left her outside of his room, she would tear up the house, so he decided to make her stay in his room while he slept.

As he changed into pajamas and let down his hair she leapt through his unmade bed pouncing on the sheets. He picked her up and lay down, and then pressed the button his remote control and the lights went off. Crawling into his bed, he placed Gingerale next to him and closed his eyes, exhausted.

Before long there was a buzzing in his ear. The nearly asleep Hyuuga jumped and activated his byakugan, peering around his room to find the noise. As he turned to his right shoulder there in front of him was Gingerale, gazing at him. When he looked at her she purred loudly and rubbed her nose up to his ear. He shivered at the noise. It was a very strange feeling. He let out a small chuckle and turned his back to her. The noise stopped and he was soon dreaming.

Suddenly he was awoken by something pulling at his hair. He turned around quickly and ended up head butting Gingerale right in the nose. He didn't even activate Byakugan this time. There was no need. The kitten had been playing with his long hair while he slept. It wasn't brain science. He grumbled and hoped she'd stop, and then turned back over again, asleep in seconds.

As he began to naturally doze in and out of sleep throughout the night, he was aware that the purring had stopped. At one point he couldn't even feel Gingerale anymore. He was afraid that he had rolled over her, until her felt her snuggle under his arm and fall asleep again with a sigh that was accompanied with a purr.

When he woke up at 8:00 the next morning, groggy and surprised he had slept in so long, he was surprised to find that Gingerale was no longer under his arm. He was about to twist his head to look for her, but as he made the slightest movement he felt something on his head. A moment later his head was vibrating with his kitten's purr and she began kneading his head. It felt odd, but it was relaxing, and he decided to go back to sleep.

He woke up when he heard footsteps coming toward his door and the door creep open. He pretended to be asleep. As the door crept open and the person began to enter the room, he at once recognized the walking pattern of Hinata, and began to wonder why she was in his room. He listened as she walked right up to his bed and stopped. She giggled. Neji felt Gingerale stop kneading his head and look up. Hinata petted her head, and the kitten's purr got louder. Then Hinata left the room, and Gingerale stretched and began kneading his head again.

As the door closed and the footsteps began to fade, Neji's eyes shot open and he slowly pulled Gingerale off his head and onto his chest. She purred and pushed her head into his nose and rubbed her little body all along his face. _What was that all about, _he wondered, scratching Gingerale behind her ears. "Are you going to attract attention like that all the time?" Neji asked the little cat.

"Mew!" she replied, laying down on his neck and kneading his cheek.

"What the heck did Hinata want?" he asked, running his hand down her back.

"Mew meoow?" she replied.

Her voice was very squeaky. It reminded Neji of Hinata's voice. "Is that why? Because of your voice?"

A sand-papery tongue rubbed under his eye and she purred loudly in his ear, causing a shiver to go down his back.

Neji couldn't help but chuckle when he realized that he was having a conversation with a kitten. And the kitten was responding to all his questions.

He picked her up and laid her next to him, then crawled out of bed and got dressed. As he put his hair into its ususal ponytail his cell phone rang. It was Lee. "Hello?" he answered. He had a pretty good idea what was coming next.

"Hyuuga Neji! I, Rock Lee, wish to fight you! Meet me at the 3rd training ground in an hour! And prepare to lose!"


	4. The fight

**Neji's Kitten**

Chapter 4 

Neji walked to the 3rd training ground, as Lee had told him too, and leaned against a tree, waiting for the pinhead to get there. He wasn't kept waiting long. Several seconds after he arrived Lee flew from the tree that Neji was leaning on and immediately went into his fighting pose.

"This is the day, Hyuuga!" Lee announced as if he was not only addressing the person in front of him. "Today, we will fight, and I will beat you, proving that you are not the only genius on Team Gai!"

With that he back flipped several feet away, a good fighting distance, and waited. Neji stood and went into the traditional Hyuuga fighting pose, and the fight began.

Neji had to admit that Lee had gotten stronger since their last battle. As the battle began Lee came at him at his medium speed, then disappeared. Neji barely dodged the kick that rushed pass the right side of his head. He flipped away and sent a steady stream of chakra to his middle and index finger, ready to strike Lee as he ran pass. As expected, Lee came running, and Neji ran at him, preparing to meet him half way and deliver his blow. As they met, he thrust his fingers into Lee's upper arm, stopping chakra flow. He hadn't even activated his byakugan; he had memorized the points. Suddenly a powerful blow in the shoulder blade threw him forward. He lost his breath, but managed to kick against the tree that he was about to crash into and land on his feet. He stood there panting for a moment, making sense of what had just happened. He would never admit it out loud, but Lee had given him a good hit. However he forced himself to quickly recover and decided what he would do next. Lee came rushing at him. He dodged and landed behind him then proceeded to activate his byakugan and quickly locked as many chakra points as he could before knocking Lee to the ground. Neji backed away and watched as Lee picked himself off the ground and went back into a fighting stance. Neji prepared to run at him and deliver the final blow when he heard…

a soft "mew."

Apparently Lee heard it too because they both cocked toward the sound. Neji's jaw dropped as he saw a little white head pop out of the bushes. Gingerale crawled out from under the bush and trotted up to Neji and sat down, as if there were nothing unusual about a kitten randomly showing up in the middle of a training ground. And apparently, to her it wasn't.

"Aw, a kitty," Lee chimed in, running up to the cat and stroking her head, despite his injuries. "I wonder how it got here?"

Neji stiffened. He suddenly realized that he would lose a great amount of his reputation if he told Lee that he had adopted a kitten. He thought of something quick. "I… think I know who it belongs to! I'd better take it back, it's been missing for a while now!"

Lee blinked at Neji. He looked down at the kitten. "It doesn't look like it's been missing for a while. It's not skinny or-"

Before Lee could say anymore Neji picked up the kitten. "I have to go," he said quickly, running off immediately.

Lee watched as his eternal rival leapt off holding this cat, which he SWORE was purring. For a moment it occurred to him that it was quite odd for Hyuuga Neji to even know how to pick up a kitten, let alone know how to carry one in a way that it was content enough to purr. But then he blew the thought away and replaced it with what he thought was a more suitable one, striking a nice guy pose. "Neji is just being a good person by returning a lost kitten to its owner!" he said aloud, as if someone was listening. With that in mind he leapt away, with nothing particular involved for the rest of the day.

Farther away, Neji was walking along the sidewalk that led home, Gingerale cupped between his hands and barely visible. She pressed against his hands as he gazed down at her, trying to answer so many unanswered questions.

"How in the world did you get out of my room?" Neji mumbled to the kitten. Before he had left he had set the kitten on his bed and closed his door.

"Meow meeew," the kitten exclaimed, peering through Neji's fingers with her big sparkling green eyes.

"Who let you out?" Neji asked, as if he could understand the kitten's answer.

Gingerale let out a tiny "mew" and stuck her nose through the gaps between Neji's fingers. That 'mew' almost sounded like a 'you'.

He blinked. He HAD closed the door… right?

He turned the corner leading to the Hyuuga estate. "How did you find me?" he asked. It was no question how she got out of the house once she was out of his room; the front door was almost always open so everyone could easily get in and out. But he doubted that she could track his scent all the way to the training grounds. He knew dogs could do that because of the little time he had been around Akamaru, but he didn't think cats were capable of it too.

Gingerale seemed to smile up at him- but that was not what made Neji's eyes grow wide with amusement. Her smile had left so much mischief swimming through her eyes he could TELL that she had come up with some kind of plan to track him.

Neji suddenly realized that he had a VERY smart cat in his hands.


	5. Lee, get out!

Neji's Kitten Ch. 5 

…

Neji walked through the open door, Gingerale still enclosed in his hands. Almost as soon as he walked into the house Hinata ran up to him. She looked horribly guilty and as she stopped in front of him she bowed her head. "I-I'm so sorry... Neji-kun. I…I tried to chase after her but… but sh-she… she got away!"

Neji raised his eyebrows. Hinata slowly raised her head, tears threatening to spill over in her eyes. Neji threw his head back and laughed. He couldn't help it. The irony of the situation was hilarious.

At his laugh Hinata jumped. A mixture of confusion, surprise, and disgust showed on her face.

Neji calmed himself down and wiped a tear from his eye. He held his hands up to Hinata's face (imitating what Tenten had done when she had first given him the kitten) and slowly opened them. Hinata's eyes got wide.

Gingerale spun around to face Hinata and let out a welcoming "meow" as if Neji's hands were her sanctuary and Hinata was a guest. When Hinata did not move the kitten rose to her hind paws and wrapped her front paws around Hinata's face.

Hinata blinked. "How… did… you…"

"She followed me," Neji replied. "She showed up in the middle of my fight with Lee and almost get crushed."

Hinata blinked slowly and took the kitten from Neji's hands. The kitten took her paws off her face and curled in her arms. "She followed you... to the training ground?" she asked, surprised.

Neji crossed his arms and nodded.

Hinata looked down at the kitten. Gingerale purred and nuzzled her neck. "Mew mew meow!" she said, as if they were partners in crime.

Hinata laughed and gave her back to Neji. "That's amazing!" she said. "I didn't know cats could track people from so far away!"

"I don't think she did," Neji said calmly. "Hinata cocked her head, confused. Neji chuckled. "I don't think she tracked me. I think she has a different way of following me."

Hinata narrowed he eyes. "I don't…understand…"

Neji shrugged and walked around her, leaving a very confused Hinata by the door. As soon as he walked into his room and closed the door Gingerale jumped out of his hands leapt on top of a fuzz ball on the floor. Neji walked over to her and picked her up by her scruff so that they were eye to eye. "It's a good thing you're cute," he said bitterly, narrowing his eyes at her.

Gingerale let out a _"mrreow" _of laughter and wrapped her front paws around his face.

Neji's irritation melted away and he smiled a huge smile that he hadn't shown in a very long time. He started to snuggle her… before he caught himself. "No no no no NO!" he yelled, squeezing his eyes shut and thrashing his head back and forth violently. He dizzied himself and fell backwards, letting go of Gingerale so that she landed on his chest. He laughed as the kitten tackled his chin, and he shook her playfully. She bit his thumb gently and began wrestling his hand. "Stop it! I'm mad at you!" Neji yelled in vain as he continued to laugh. Gingerale detached herself from his hand and proceeded to tackle his nose. He shook his head and she play-bit his nose, and in return he batted her ear.

At this moment it happened that Rock Lee came up to Neji's window, opened it all the way, and jumped through it, to see a cat on top of Neji's face, biting his nose, and Neji on the ground, and from what Lee thought, he was screaming (Lee had NEVER heard Neji _actually_ laugh). Before Lee could even think it over, he pointed at the cat and screamed, "Oh my god! My eternal rival is being attacked by a vicious cat!"

At the sound of his voice Gingerale jumped, spun around, and hissed at him. Neji quickly scooped her up sat up, his smile gone, and instead replaced with surprise.

"Neji, what's going on!?" Lee screamed in a state of panic.

Neji stared blankly at his teammate for a second as his brain registered what had just happened, then his face turned red with anger. "Lee!" he yelled, standing up, "What the hell is your problem? What are you doing in my room!?"

Lee narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What are you holding that cat? Isn't that the same cat that showed up earlier?"

"Answer my questions first!" Neji demanded, not even thinking about Lee's questions.

Lee blinked and shook his head to clear it. "Right, right… I'm delivering a message," he mumbled under his breath to himself. "Naruto's having a sleepover! All the boys are invited! Come over at 6:00!" He said aloud, and then crossed his arms. "Now tell me… Why do you have that cat?"

Neji sighed defeat as Gingerale climbed up onto his shoulder and lay down. "Tenten gave it to me. It's my cat."

Lee's face brightened and he went into a nice guy pose. "Yosh!" he said, before jumping back through the window. "I'll see you later tonight, Neji!" he called over his shoulder before disappearing.

Neji stood there, having no idea what to think of what had just happened. "Meow meow mew," said Gingerale. Neji chuckled as he guessed what she might be saying.  
_"That guy is an idiot…"_

He suddenly snapped out of it and looked at the time. It was 5:25. That was just enough time to pack his bag and head over. He took Gingerale off his shoulder and set her on his bed, where she sat and watched silently as he went around his room and packed his bag.

…

By the time he finished it was 5:35. Neji sat on his bed and went through everything one more time. "I've got everything," he said when he was done.

At this Gingerale sat up and walked over to him. "Meow!" she said as she sat on his hand.

Neji blinked and thought for a moment. "I guess I should fill up your food and water bowl, shouldn't I?" he said finally as he set his bag on his bed and filled up both bowls. "Well, there you are," he said, finishing. Gingerale watched with an unreadable expression as Neji picked up his bag and walked to the door. "See you tomorrow!"

"Morw!"

Neji slowly turned toward the noise. Gingerale sat on the bed watching him, but as soon as she was sure that he had stopped walking she jumped off the bed, ran up to him, climbed up his clothes with her claws, and perched herself on his shoulder. When she was comfortable she began to purr.

Neji grunted in irritation. "You can't come, Gingerale," he said, attempting to pull her off his shoulder by her scruff. The kitten stopped purring and dug her claws deep into his shoulder in protest. "Get off!" he yelled angrily, wrapping his hand around her waist, desperately trying to pry her off. In response she spun her head around and bit his hand hard until he let go, and then climbed his face with he claws and tangled herself in his long hair. "OW!" Neji screamed as he rubbed his scalp in search of the kitten. When he found her he grabbed her scruff and tossed her onto his bed. He tried to make a run for the door, but he was too slow and she wrapped her entire body around his ankle. Neji yelped in pain as she sank her teeth deep into his ankle. He began thrashing his leg in an attempt to shake her off, and as he did so he realized that this two-pound ball of fluff was winning this fight.

**Hope you enjoyed! This is my favorite chapter yet, but the next chapter is gonna be hilarious! Neji goes to the party and all the boys get to meet Gingerale! Now ROD! (review or die) **


	6. The Sleepover

**Neji's Kitten Ch. 6**

"I'm not kidding!" Lee yelled a Choji.

"Ya… sure," Choji mumbled under a mouthful of chips.

"You say that like there's something wrong with animals altogether," Kiba growled, Akamaru chiming in with a "Ruff, ruff!.

"I never said that," Choji said calmly.

"Where the hell is Neji anyway?! It's 6:30!" Naruto yelled, pacing by the door. "You gave him the right time, didn't you, Bushy Brows?"

"I bet he told him that it was tomorrow night or something," Sasuke mumbled before Lee could reply.

"I did not!" Lee retorted. "I told him tonight at 6:00!"

Just then there was a knock at the door. Naruto, Lee, and Kiba jumped up to get it while Sasuke, Shikamaru, Shino, and Choji just watched without getting up.

Everyone's jaw dropped as Naruto opened the door and they saw Neji.

The bag he was holding had a ripped handle and the bag itself was scratched all over. His legs were not only scratched, but had bite marks on his left ankle, which were bleeding. His arms were no better off and one side of his face had claw marks in it; the marks on his forehead were bleeding. The top of his hair was a mess, and Neji himself looked like he had something shoved way up his ass. But that was not what they were staring at. On Neji's left shoulder lay a white and beige kitten.

"Hi…" Neji said slowly, noticing the seven flabbergasted stares that he was getting, "Sorry I was late…"

"Dude! What is _that!?!_" Naruto screamed, his eyes wide as the kitten cocked her head at him.

Sasuke silently got up and pushed his way to the front of the group at the door. He stared at the kitten with narrowed eyes. When Gingerale let out a "mew" in greeting, he stood up strait and slowly poked her ear. She shook her head quickly and pulled herself back on to Neji's shoulder as she slid off. Sasuke gasped and jumped back. "Oh my god! It's alive!"

"I told you it was real! I wasn't lying! Now give me my five bucks!" Lee yelled.

Sasuke mumbled a curse under his breath and pulled a five-dollar bill out of his pocket and stuffed it into Lee's hand.

Neji smacked his forehead and sighed. "Listen, you guys, I didn't want to bring her, okay? She wouldn't let me leaver her home."

Naruto burst out laughing. "S-so all these scratches and the bites on your ankle are from a little girl kitty that attacked you because it wanted to come with you!?" he was choking out the words over his laughter.

Neji grinded his teeth and his face turned red with anger, but as he opened his mouth to retort Gingerale bristled viciously, stood up growling, and spat fiercely at Naruto. Neji smirked as Naruto jumped back.

Akamaru, who had been lying next to Shino, suddenly jumped up and ran to Kiba's feet, barking at the cat. Gingerale looked down at him and cooed, and then she jumped off Neji's shoulder and landed squarely in front of Akamaru. He immediately stopped barking and cocked his head. The kitten let out an excited _"mreow"_ and walked into the house. As she walked by the dumbfounded dog she wrapped her long tail around his neck loosely, signaling for him to follow her. He trotted after her with his tail in the air.

The boys watched in amazement. Kiba's jaw dropped as he watched his dog follow the cat. He slowly turned to Neji, his eyes wide with utter shock. "Your cat just _seduced_ Akamaru!"

Neji blinked.

"…"

"Akamaru hates cats!"

Neji chuckled. "She's not your normal everyday cat, I guess," he replied calmly, walking through the crowd and sitting down.

Shikamaru stared at Neji for a moment, then sighed and leaned back in the beanbag chair that he was sitting in. "So what kinda of troublesome game do you have planned for us, Naruto?" he asked lazily.

Naruto snickered and rubbed his hands together evilly. "Truth or dare!"

There was a long dramatic pause.

"All right! Me first! Me first! Please, Naruto-kun?" Lee begged, rocking around on the ground like an excited little girl.

"No!" Naruto yelled. "It's my house, I go first!" With that his eyes narrowed as he scanned the small crowd for his victim. "Lee! Truth or dare!"

Lee smiled. "Dare!"

"Okay…" Naruto looked thoughtful. "I dare you to… streak on the city square!"

Lee stared blankly for a moment before shrugging and standing up. "Alright," he said as he got up and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

The other seven boys were silent as they waited, not sure what to expect. They began to exchange anxious glances, until Lee walked out of the bathroom…

…But naked.

Choji chocked on his chips. Sasuke started twitching uncontrollably. Naruto screamed like a girl and covered his eyes. Kiba squeezed his eyes tight and yelled demands to "put it back on!!!" Shino's glasses fell right off his face, revealing huge horrified dark brown eyes. Shikamaru started hyperventilating. Neji slammed his shaking head on the ground mumbling, "notagain notagain, ohpleaseno notagain!"

"Do you want I should not do the bet?" Lee yelled over all the commotion.

"Yes!" Naruto screamed, his eyes beginning to water. "You won the dare! Just put your clothes back on!"

Lee nodded, a smile of triumph on his face, and he quickly went back into the bathroom.

Most of the boys calmed down almost at once, except for Sasuke, who's hand continued to twitch violently, and Shikamaru, who had to manually slow down his breathing.

When Gingerale saw Sasuke she left her spot next to Akamaru, where she had been kneading his ears (he was enjoying the massage and was upset when it ended) and began purring. When he looked down at her with a blank stare she began kneading his twitching hand until it stopped. Sasuke smiled slightly as the twitching stopped, and rubbed the kitten's head. In return she purred louder and curled up in his lap, where she continued to knead his legs.

Lee walked out of the bathroom, now fully dressed, and sat down. "All right! My turn!" he said excitedly as he scanned over the crowd and quickly made his decision. "Sasuke! I dare you to throw the kitty out the window!"

Neji flinched and gritted his teeth.

Sasuke, who had been petting Gingerale, jumped at his name and glared at Lee. "I never decided of truth or dare!… And I pick truth," he added as he looked down at the purring kitten in his lap.

Lee looked crestfallen for only a moment before he had his question. "Who would you rather kiss… Sakura or Ino?"

Sasuke looked thoughtful for a moment as everyone leaned in to hear his response. "Sakura without doubt. Ino would use her tongue. And I don't want that." After a short and very awkward pause Sasuke continued. "It's my turn… Shino. Truth or dare?"

Shino didn't move as he answered plainly, "Truth."

Sasuke smiled evilly. "Okay, Shino… would you rather do it with Hinata or Ino?"

Shino's face turned red. "I'm not inclined to answer that," he mumbled quickly.

"Ya, Sasuke," Naruto said, "Don't ask questions like that! It's just wrong!"

Sasuke scowled and Shino's face slowly turned back to its normal color. "Fine. Kiba. Truth or dare?"

Kiba smirked. "Dare."

Sasuke smiled evilly once again. "I dare you to make out with that pillow-" he pointed to the pillow Akamaru was sitting on "-and pretend it's Ino."

Kiba gagged and looked at the pillow in disgust, then reluctantly slid it out from under a very agitated Akamaru and proceeded to make out with it, saying "Oh, Ino!" again and again. After about thirty seconds, he threw the pillow onto Akamaru and gagged some more.

Gingerale hopped off Sasuke's lap (to his displeasure) and climbed into Kiba's. When he gave her a disgusted look she purred and climbed onto his shoulder and licked his cheek. Kiba blushed, but refused to smile.

Neji chuckled. "I think my cat just 'seduced' you," he mocked, watching Gingerale sit comfortably on Kiba's shoulder. Akamaru whined.

Kiba glared at the Hyuuga. "I'm a natural dog person. Some ball of fluff on my shoulder aint gonna change that."

Gingerale laughed in the only way a cat could.

The challenge was accepted.

"All right! It's my turn!" Kiba said. "…Shikamaru. Truth or dare?"

Shikamaru sighed uninterestedly. "Truth…"

Gingerale wrapped her tail around Kiba's neck as far as it would go and put her muzzle to his ear. As she whispered to him things that only they could understand, Kiba's expressing contorted from. shock, to surprise, to mischief, and he leaned in closer. Finally the kitten pulled away. "Creative," he mumbled before saying, "Clouds or virginity?"

Shikamaru sat bolt up, a look of complete confusion on his face. "What!?!?!"

Kiba smirked. "Which would you rather have for the rest of you life… clouds or virginity?"

Everybody leaned in.

Shikamaru's eye twitched. "Um…clouds…?"

All the boys burst out laughing, except for Shikamaru, who still looked confused as hell, Choji, who wasn't the least bit surprised with the answer, and Kiba, who glanced at Gingerale with a smile.

And with that, the kitten had won the challenge.

Gingerale leapt off Kiba's shoulder and casually walked up to Shino. She sat and watched her reflection in his glasses, and he in turn stared down at her silently. Her tail began to swish, and she suddenly propelled herself upwards and tried to grab his face. He gasped loudly and fell backward with a loud _thump_.

Everyone slowly turned to watch as Shino pulled himself back off the ground and glared down at Gingerale.Bugs slowly began to crawl from the holes in his neck.

Neji, guessing what would happen if those bugs were to get to his cat, dove forward and scooped her up. Bugs began to crawl onto his handsand he tried to shake them off, failing miserably. He glared at Shino and pulled himself back, bugs still clinging to his fingers. They soon fell of and crawled back to Shino, and Gingerale curled up in Neji's lap and fell asleep.

"Stupid cat…" Shino grumbled, crossing his arms.

Neji glared at him harder. The thought of those bugs eating Gingerale alive mixed with the memory of the sound nin's arms exploding at the Chunnin exams, and his anger grew.

He finally dragged his gaze off Shino and watched the kitten's chest rise and fall as she breathed. He scratched behind her ears, and she purred loudly and stretched.

This was when he realized that every single person in the room was silently staring at him.

"Stupid useless cat," Shino mumbled again.

"Neji!" Lee said, "I just realized that that you never told us your kitty's name! What is it?"

Neji paused. He suddenly realized that a great deal of his dignity had already been shredded here; a little more wouldn't hurt. He sighed. "Her name is… Gingerale."

Naruto snorted, holding back a laugh. "Ginger- ale!? Like the fizzy drink!? AHAHAHAHA!!" within seconds he was laughing so hard his eyes were watering.

Before Neji knew that she was gone, Gingerale had leapt out of his lap and had clamped onto Naruto's wrist with her jaws.

Naruto yelped in pain and grabbed Gingerale's ear. He tugged in a desperate attempt to free himself, only causing a trickle of blood to run into his palm, and her ear easily slipped out of his grasp.

At this point Neji was laughing so hard he couldn't breath. It wasn't long before everyone else was in stitches too, and the harder they laughed the more Naruto panicked.

"Get it off!" Naruto screeched. "Get it off! Please! I'll never insult it again! I promise! Just make it let go!"

"Fine, fine." Neji gasped, trying to catch his breath. "Gingerale!" he called, "Gingerale, let go! He's learned his lesson! Let go!"

Gingerale slowly pulled her fangs out of Naruto's skin and happily trotted back to Neji, licking the blood off her lips. She sat in front of him with a look that clearly asked, "Did I do good?" He laughed and raised her into his lap.

Naruto gripped his wrist as it oozed blood. He got up and talked inot the kitchen, where he wrapped it in gauze. "L-let's not play this anymore," he whined, still gripping his wrist.

No one really agreed, but no one declined either. There was a five minute pause… and then the silence was broken.

"What do we do now?" Choji aked, putting down his chips for once.

"Um…" Naruto mumbled, still concentrated on the pain in his wrist. "U dunno…"

"Why don't we tell stories?" Shikamaru suggested slowly and unsurely.

There was a reluctant murmur of agreement, and the boys spent the rest of the night telling crappy versions of Bloody Mary, Mary Sue, and other ridiculous ghost stories.

By 6:00 in the morning, the room had gotten drowsy. Shikamaru was asleep in the bean-bag chair. Shino was sitting hunched over, and the only way anyone could tell if he was asleep was when his glasses fell off his face. Choji was on his back, snoring. Kiba had his head in his hand and was desperately trying to keep his eyes open. Sasuke was leaning against a wall with his arms crossed… everyone just assumed he was asleep. Neji was sprawled out on a blanket, mumbling something about cheese in his sleep. Naruto had curled up into a little ball around his bitten wrist and was now asleep. Lee was blinking aw quickly as he could to try to stay awake. And Gingerale was sprawled out on her back with her paw on Akamaru's forehead…they were both asleep.

Within five minutes everyone in the room was so deep in sleep they could have been mistaken as dead.


	7. Oh no

**Neji's Kitten Chapter 7**

_Ok, let's skip ahead, well, about a year and a half. Now we are in the middle of the time skip in which Naruto and Jiraiya are gone and that stupid little bone headed Uchiha is off with Orochimaru. Now let's summarize._

_Gingerale grew like a kitty weed, but even so Neji remained somewhat oblivious to her growth, being that he was around her so much. Though he did realize that she was getting big when she climbed onto his shoulder one day and could easily wrap her entire body around both of his shoulders comfortably. She grew long and lengthy, with a slim, long body and long legs. However, the cat's personality changed very little… the only thing that changed was that she got smarter, which was often both her blessing and her curse._

_Gingerale also became very popular. Since the stubborn cat usually hated to be left alone, she was generally parading around on Neji's shoulders, and after the sleepover the boys had no intention of staying quiet about her, so the konoichi on each team quickly found out about the cat, and therefore Neji was sometimes seen with a small flock of girls on either side of him, making a huge fuss over Gingerale. Also, when Gai found out about the cat, he thought that it would be a great idea to bring her along on missions, being that she was so smart, and a great decoy. She proved many times to be a helpful ally, and accompanies the team on almost all of their missions now. Now, back to the story._

Neji walked out of his bathroom in pajamas, his hair wet from the shower he had just taken. She grabbed his brush and began to brush out his hair, and sat on his bed next to Gingerale, who was curled up in a ball. He looked at her. "…Are you going to come on the mission tomorrow?" he asked.

She looked up at him lazily and meowed in a negative tone, then went back into a ball.

Neji frowned. "You're been so lazy lately! What's up with you!?"

She waved her tail dismissively without looking up.

He glared at her, but then crawled into bed and turned out the lights, setting his brush down on the table next to the bed and went to sleep.

The next morning Neji woke up to the sound of an alarm clock in his ears. He quickly turned it off and got out of bed to get dressed. The whole time Gingerale lazily watched from her spot on the bed, without the slightest bit of interest.

When he was ready and about to go, he turned to her. "I'm gonna be gone for at least three days, you know that, right?"

She sighed loudly without looking at him.

"Are you absolutely sure you don't want to come with us? You will be missed."

She growled softly, signifying her impatience.

Neji glared at her. "Fine… I guess I'll see you in a few days…" And with that he left the room, a little crestfallen.

His team was waiting for him by the gate.

"Neji, you're finally here!" Gai exclaimed.

Lee nodded. "Me and Gai-Sensei did 1,000 push ups while we waited for you and Tenten!"

Before Tenten could get a word in, Gai interrupted. "Oi, Neji, where is our youthful friend Gingerale?" he belted out, pointing to Neji's catless shoulder.

Neji shook his head. "She didn't want to come," he replied simply, a hint of regret in his voice.

"Aww," Tenten murmured, "She almost never misses a mission! Is she sick?"

He shook his head again. "I don't think so. She just… didn't want to come. She gave me no indication why."

"Aww," Lee said sadly, his shoulders drooping, "That really dampens my spirit…"

Gai put a hand on Lee's shoulder. "We will miss our furry teammate… But, we must be on out way. Come on, team!" He turned toward the gates and began to lead his team away from the village.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Five days later, Neji trudged into the Hyuuga compound, carrying his bag in his hands. The strap had broken when he had dodged a shuuriken. He was dead tired, grumpy, and in need of a shower.

"Welcome home, Neji-nii-san!" Hanabi chirped as he walked pass her.

He ignored her and went strait to the door leading to his room. He slowly opened the door and almost instinctively looked down, expecting to see Gingerale weaving through his legs and purring loudly. When she did not appear, he slowly raised his head, and his eyes grew wide.

On his pillow lay a very tired looking Gingerale, her green eyes glazed and tired. But that was not what Neji was staring at. At her stomach lay four small bundles of fur. Neji froze and his hands grew shaky and clammy, causing his bag to drop out of his hands and land on the ground with a thump.

"HINATA!!!!"


	8. You Draggerd Yourself Into This

**Chapter 8**

Neji paced outside his room uneasily, Hiashi and Hanabi leaning against the wall watching him.

Hanabi was bouncing on her heals excitedly. "Oh Neji-nii-san! Isn't this exciting? Gingerale had babies!"

"Hn…" Neji mumbled. He continued to pace nervously, until Hinata finally walked out of his room.

She held a small cloth in her hand and was smiling. "W-well, she seems to be fine and the three kittens are healthy…"

Neji smiled, relieved. But then a moment later he frowned. "Wait… three? Weren't there four?"

Hinata's face saddened. There was a pause, and then she said, "One… was dead when I came in there."

She looked down at the cloth and unraveled it a little, revealing a limp lifeless ginger kitten.

Neji sighed and took the bundle from her. "I'll go burry this one," he murmured, and walked through the hall and outside.

He decided to burry it outside the Hyuuga compound, far enough away so that it didn't disrupt the scenery, but close enough to find. He walked back to the Hyuuga compound with a heavy heart.

Hanabi was sitting on his bed, looking at the kittens in fascination when Neji got home. Hiashi was standing over her watching, a tiny hint of fascination in his own eyes.

Neji walked into his room and looked at them both, and they both looked at him. "Alright, Hanabi," Hiashi said, "It's time to go." Hanabi nodded and promptly left the room. Hiashi followed more slowly, and as he passed Neji he gave him a skeptical look.

His spirits dampened further, he sat on the bed next to Gingerale and her kittens. She looked at him and swished her tail in content.

He looked at her and sighed. "You could've given me some indication to this!" He gestured to her kittens.

She blinked and purred loudly. One of the kittens tumbled away from her stomach, and she meowed loudly as the kitten gently bumped into Neji's thigh and came to a stop.

He sighed and gently picked up the ball of fluff in his hands. It raised its head shakily and squealed. He smiled and put it back at its mother's side. It cured into her stomach and fell asleep. He chuckled and looked at the kittens. The biggest one was dark brown with gray flecks on its back. The next biggest was ginger, though a darker ginger than Gingerale's spots. The last, and smallest one was the one that had rolled off the pillow, and it was calico.

Neji put his elbow on the bed and rested his head in his palm so that he was eyelevel with Gingerale. "Where was I when this happened?" he asked calmly.

She gave him a mischievous look.

Expecting this, Neji sighed and picked up the biggest kitten. It hissed at him quietly and squirmed, and he put it back. "You can't come on missions anymore."

She slashed her tail angrily. "Meow!?" _"Why not!?"_

He smirked at her. "Because these little guys can't be left alone. I'm no midwife, but even I know that."

Gingerale snorted and rested her head on the pillow, upset.

Neji laughed and leaned against the wall that his bed was against. "Don't blame me. You're the one that got yourself pregnant."

She growled threateningly.

"… Kitty whore…"

She stood up, the kittens rolling off the pillow, and hissed and scratched his shoulder, cutting his sleeve but barely breaking the skin.

He watched the kittens roll away from the pillow and begin to mewl, and then he glared at Gingerale. "What kind of mother are you!?"

She grunted and walked off the pillow and picked up the ginger kitten gently. It immediately stopped mewling, and she carried it back onto the top of the pillow and set it down. Then she went to get the calico one. Neji picked up the last one for her and set it with the others. Gingerale lay back down and they curled back into her as if nothing happened. She looked somewhat displeased, but rested her head on her paws and sighed.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

The next day Neji was walking down the market street with a grocery list in hand. He had been sent out to do some basic shopping, but he had not allowed Gingerale to come, and he felt naked without her. He kept reading over the list to try to keep his mind off the unusually cool feeling on his shoulders, but it wasn't helping much.

"Neji-kun!"

He spun around to see Sakura running up to him. She stopped and smiled at him, looking at his shoulders for the cat that she was accustomed to seeing there. "…Where's Gingerale?"

Neji shrugged. "She…can't leave the house."

Sakura gasped. "Is she sick? I can take a look at her if-"

"No, it's nothing like that…"

The konoichi's eyebrows rose. "Well… what is it then?"

He averted her gaze as he replied, "She had kittens…"

Sakura's face brightened. "How exciting! She squealed." "How many did she have?"

"Three…"

"Can I have one? When they're old enough, I mean?"

Neji suddenly whipped his head around to look at her. That had never crossed his mind. "Uh…"

Her smile faded. "I understand if you don't want to give me one…"

He blinked, not really knowing what to say. "W-well… I hadn't really thought-"

No, it's okay," She interrupted. "Just let me know if one's available." With that she smiled and nodded goodbye, before turning around and walking into what Neji guessed was the Yamanaka flower shop.

He continued on his way, the thought racing through his mind. He knew he couldn't keep them all, but he didn't want to lose them all…

"_Can I have one?"_

If they were anything like their mother, it wouldn't be hard to find them homes; Almost everyone in town liked Gingerale. But he wondered: Could he convince Hiashi to let him keep one?

"_Can I have one?" _

As he picked up the things on the list, he started to concoct a plan.

"_Can I have one?"_

"_Yes, Sakura. There are two to choose form."_

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

A vein bulged out of Neji's temple in irritation. "I really don't see what's so funny."

Tenten sat in the seat across form him, laughing too hard to breath. They sat in a restaurant, and having finished their meals, were just talking. Neji had invited his teammate to lunch, saying that he had something he wanted to discuss. He had just finished his story, and this was how she was reacting.

"Okay, okay, let me get this strait!" she gasped, trying to catch her breath. "You think… that Gingerale wondered away on one of out missions in the middle of the night, got herself pregnant, and then gave birth on your pillow during our mission!?"

Neji crossed his arms and nodded. "Pretty much."

She burst out laughing again to the point that she was in tears. "I…I…" she choked out, before laughing even harder.

Neji glared at her. "What's so funny!?" he yelled over her laughter.

She slowly calmed herself down again. "I…I just cant picture that!" she giggled.

He opened his mouth to retort, but then thought something over and sat back and smirked. "Fine. If you don't believe me… come see them."

Tenten immediately stopped giggling and looked strait at him. "You're kidding, right!?"

He shook his head. "Nope."

Tenten blinked at him and sighed, then stood up. "Alright."

Neji stood up, too, and he walked out the booth and began to lead her to the Hyuuga compound.

As soon as he pushed the door to his room open Gingerale streaked from her spot with her kittens and ran up to Neji's feet. She looked at him pitifully and meowed. He scooped her up, and she purred loudly and walked from his arms to Tenten's shoulders, where she lay down across them. Tenten looked shocked.

Neji chuckled. "She probably wants you to take her home. She hates me locking her in this room."

Tenten pulled the cat off her shoulders and held her, and in return Gingerale head butted her cheek. Tenten stroked her back, and the cat rested her head on Tenten's shoulder in content.

Neji watched them, and then walked across the room. He gathered up the kittens in his hand and walked back to the doorway and put them in Tenten's face. Her eyebrows rose. "I told you," the Hyuuga said, the slightest hint of irritation in his voice. "I. Don't. Lie."

Tenten sighed defeat and put Gingerale down to look at the kittens. Gingerale quickly climbed onto Neji's shoulders.

Tenten took the kittens and looked at them. "This is it? This is all she had?" she asked, letting the ginger one suck on her finger.

Neji paused. "Well… there was a fourth, but it died."

Tenten nodded, pulled her finger out of the kitten's mouth, and went in and set them on Neji's bed. "How many do you plan to keep?"

He looked at her, amused. "You say that like you expect me to keep them all!"

Tenten shrugged. "You can be very unpredictable. I never really expected you to keep Gingerale!"

"Hn…" He couldn't disagree. "Well… I'm not." He sat down on his bed, and Gingerale hopped off his shoulders and ran out the door and into Hinata's room, which was right across the hall. Neji watched her go, and then turned back to Tenten. "I was kind of hoping that you'd take one."

She froze for a moment, and then shook her head. "No, Neji, I can't…"

He frowned. "Why not?"

"I just won't be able to take care of it!"

"But you're the one I trust the most!" he pleaded. "Please?"

She looked at him thoughtfully and sighed. That was quite a compliment, considering Neji. "…Alright. I'll consider it. Would that make you happy?"

Neji smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Tenten."

She rolled her eyes at him and smiled slightly. "Whatever…"

Just then Hinata appeared in Neji's doorway, holding a reluctant Gingerale in her arms. She opened her mouth to say something, but Neji cut her off.

"She can sleep in your room tonight, if you want," he said.

Hinata looked shocked, but then smiled and nodded, and walked back to her room.

Tenten looked at Neji. He chuckled. "That's a first… Gingerale's never slept in anyone's room but mine!"

Tenten's eyes widened. "Really!? You've had her for almost two years and she's never slept in anyone else's room but yours!?"

He smiled shyly and nodded.

One of the kittens squeaked. Tenten offered it a different finger, and it sucked on it happily. "What about these three? Will they be okay without her?"

Neji shrugged. "I think so…"

Tenten shook her head. "I think they need to be fed like, every five hours or something. You have to feed them if Gingerale's not around."

Neji moaned. "Nothing in the world will get that cat out of Hinata's room at this point…"

Tenten looked thoughtful for a moment, and then stood up and pulled her finger out of the kittens' mouths. "Can I use you computer?"

Neji nodded.

She got up and sat at his computer, and went to She typed in 'hand raising kittens' and after clicking a few links, she read out loud, "'In the situation that the mother of a litter of kittens in not available, there are a few simple steps to keep the kittens healthy and growing properly. Number One: A Heat Source…'" she trailed off and started reading to herself silently, then spun around in the chair to face Neji. "Do you have an electric blanket or something like that?"

He nodded.

"Wrap it in a towel and put them on it."

He got up and left the room, and a minute later he came back with an electric pad wrapped on a towel. He set it on his bed, plugged it in, and set it to medium and put thew kittens on it.

Tenten turned back around in the chair and started to read again, "' Number Two: Nutrition. Newborn to ten-week-old kittens need to be fed milk every one to two hours. However, they can NOT survive off cow's milk. Kittens must be fed special formula, which can be found in pet stores…' Are you getting this, Neji?"

His mouth hung open. "Every one to two hours!?" he repeated with a moan.

She shrugged. "It could be worse. But did you hear me? About the formula?"

He nodded. "Go ahead… continue. This just keeps getting better and better."

She giggled and continued, "'Number Three: Feeding. A healthy kitten should be eating about one fourth its body weight at each feeding. If it is not meeting this standard, then there may be something wrong with the kitten's digestive tract and it needs to be taken to a vet immediately.

"'A kitten will usually eat on its own, but sometimes need to be force-fed. Therefore it is best to use a tool that can force liquid into its mouth. A kitten's mouth is delicate, and therefore the tool that you feed a kitten with needs a soft, smooth opening…" Tenten stopped, then spun around again. "Do you have a mini turkey bester?"

Neji sighed and left the room. A minute later he came back with a turkey bester in hand. He handed it to Tenten.

She took it and looked at it. It had a long narrow tube made of soft flexible plastic that was longer than the actual syringe part of it, and five little plastic balls inside. "This'll do for now," she mumbled. She read from the web page for a moment, and then turned back to Neji. "One fourth their weight now is about one of these. This is what you do." She got up and went over to the bed and picked up the brown kitten and sat it in her lap. Neji walked over to watch. She set the syringe down and held the kitten's head, then put her fingers on either side of its mouth in the corners and squeezed lightly. Its mouth opened, and she picked up the turkey bester and stuck the soft plastic in its mouth. "That's all you do. Simple." She put the kitten down and pulled the tool out of its mouth. "But it says that you can get feeding bottles at the pet store most likely."

Neji nodded and took the bester from her and looked at it, then cleaned the kitten spit off it with his shirt and looked at her. "Is there anything else?"

Tenten giggled and nodded. "Set your alarm clock to go off every two hours at night… It says that if the alarm doesn't wake you up, the kittens' mewling will!"

Neji sighed. "Oh joy. Something else to add to my already exciting schedule," he said sarcastically. He slipped on his shoes and looked over his shoulder at Tenten. "Common. We gotta go pick up this… formula, or whatever this is."

Her eyes widened. "What!? We? Why do I have to come!?"

"Because you dragged yourself into this mess the moment you sat at that computer. Now come on!"

**I would just like to say that NO, I do NOT have to name a source for the information on hand-raising kittens because... I wrote all that by heart. **

**The more reviews, the more I'll write:D**


	9. IM doesnt keep any secrets

Chapter 9

**Make sure you know:  
HNSpiritChakra- Neji  
GreenBeast1430- Lee  
XoxChrryBlssmxox- Sakura  
1RedFang1- Kiba (And Akamaru XD)  
PandaHeadlol- Tenten**

Neji and Tenten walked out of the Konoha pet store side by side, each carrying a bag. In Neji's bag were kitten formula and two bottles. In Tenten's were two bags of adult cat food.

"How long were we in there?" Neji asked.

Tenten looked at her watch. "About an hour and a half… By the time we get back to your house the kittens will need feeding, though."

Neji nodded and picked up his pace, his mind rattling with 'what ifs'. What if Gingerale refused to take care of them in the morning? What if he couldn't take care of the kittens by himself? What if they all died because of him?

"Neji? What's on your mind?"

He looked at Tenten. He had barely realized that he had been daydreaming. He looked away and let out a mumbled, "hn…"

Tenten turned on her heal and got in his face so that he was forced to look at him. "What's up?"

He paused, and then slowly started, "I don't think I'll be able to take care of kittens…"

She flashed him a toothy grin and laughed. "It really isn't that hard! All you really have to do feed them and keep them warm! If you want they can just sit in your lap to keep warm! It won't be that big of a job to keep them alive."

He blinked at her, and his frown slowly went away. He nodded his thanks, and they continued to walk.

oOOooOOo

"…They don't look that hungry to me," Neji mumbled. The two stood over the kittens in his room, watching them sleep in a little pile on the electric pad. "Should we wake them?" Neji asked, twiddling one of the bottles in his hand.

Tenten paused for a moment, and then nodded.

Neji sighed and looked at the bottle in his left hand, and then the bag of kitten formula in his right. He sat on his bed and read the directions. After the directions where was a chart with ages and how many ounces of formula to feed each age. "Tenten, according to this, they're supposed to get more than you told me…"

She cocked her head to look at him and sat down and peered over his shoulder at the chart. "…Okay… but not by much. Fill up the bottles and we'll feed them."

Neji gave her a strange side-glance, but then snatched the bottle from her and stood up. He went into the bathroom, filled one bottle up halfway with water and then dumped some formula into it. He mixed it till it mixed all together and turned milky, and then he did the same with the other, except he filled it up all the way. Then he came back into his room and tossed Tenten the half filled one. "One of them should finish that off, I think." He held up the other one. "This'll finish off the other two."

Tenten nodded and slowly picked up the ginger kitten. It woke up and began to mewl, and she stuck the nipple of the bottle into its mouth clumsily. It squirmed for a moment and then settled down and drank from the bottle contently.

Neji watched her until the kitten settled, and then picked up the calico kitten and did the same. When the bottle was about halfway empty he switched to the brown kitten. Tenten watched him when she was done with the ginger kitten.

When he was done with the brown kitten he put it back on the electric pad with the others and looked at the clock. It was 4:48P.M. "I'll have to feed them again at 7:00." He said mostly to himself. _"…And then at 9:00, 11:00, 1:00, 3:00, 5:00…"_ And idea suddenly occurred to him and he turned to Tenten. "Would you do me a favor?"

She gave him a doubtful look and said slowly, "Depends…"

He smiled hopefully. "Would you take one of the kittens? Just so I don't have to make two trips at night to refill the bottle?"

Tenten looked surprised for a moment, and then glared at him. "Neji Hyuuga, you think you're pretty sneaky, don't you!?"

He tried to look offended. "What do you mean!? I'm just-"

"You think you can get me to fall in love with one of these balls of fluff by having me take care of it!" she stood up and crossed her arms. "Alright."

Neji flinched at the last word, and then stared at her as if she had just turned inot a flying pig. "What!?"

Tenten smirked slyly, and it slowly turned into a genuine smile. "I'll. Take. One. Did you suddenly become hard of hearing, Mr. Genius?" And with that she swiped up the ginger kitten, snatched a bottle, and left the house.

Neji sat and watched her leave, and when he was sure she was out the door he scrambled to his feet and ran to the front door.

She stopped and turned halfway to look at him where she was. She smiled and saluted with one hand, and then held up the hand with the kitten and the bottle. Then she turned back around and continued to walk away.

He watched her go with a blank stare, and then he walked back to his room and sat on his bed. _"How is she able to do that to me?" _he thought. _"How is she able to just make me into a confused idiot without even trying?"_

And then he had an epiphany.

He paused in realization and then threw his head against his bed and shook it. _"That can't be right… We're just friends. Why would I…?"_ He found himself chuckling at the thought. In his head the vision of her smiling at him with the ginger kitten in her hands appeared.

One of the kittens squealed, jumping Neji back to reality, and he sat up and picked up the mewling calico kitten. He rubbed its back, and it stopped mewling and sucked on his finger. The brown kitten hissed quietly and crawled blindly off the electric pad and toward the end of the bed. Neji caught it as it started to fall off the edge. The kitten squeaked and Neji set it back on the electric pad. He set the other next to it and pushed the pad to the farthest corner of his bed, away from the edge. Then he got up and sat at his computer. He woke it up to find that the kitten care web page was still up. He added it to his favorites, and then X'd out and logged onto IM.

**GreenBeast1430: Hello Neji!  
****NHSpiritChakra: …  
****GreenBeast1430: lol XD… wassup?  
****NHSpiritChakra: nm…  
****GreenBeast1430: You never say that! What's up?  
****NHSpiritChakra: …  
****NHSpiritChakra: none of your business.  
****GreenBeast1430: pleeeeeaaaaaase tell me :  
****NHSpiritChakra: …  
****GreenBeast1430:(  
****NHSpiritChakra: no lee**

**XoxChrryBlssmxox: Hi Neji! Wassup?  
****NHSpiritChakra: I hate my cat  
****XoxChrryBlssmxox: lol XD  
****NHSpiritChakra: … I'm serious -.-  
****XoxChrryBlssmxox: I know X3  
****NHSpiritChakra: …  
****NHSpiritChakra: -.-  
**

**GreenBeast1430????  
****GreenBeast1430?????????  
****NHSpiritChakra: SHOULD'NT YOU BE PESTERING SAKURA!?!?!?  
****GreenBeast1430: …  
****GreenBeast1430: please tell me :'(  
****NHSpiritChakra: NO  
****GreenBeast1430:'(  
****NHSpiritChakra: WHY DO YOU INSIST ON BEING AN ANNOYANCE?  
****GreenBeast1430: . fine. ass.  
****NHSpiritChakra: I'm killing you  
****GreenBeast1430: LAWL XD  
****GreenBeast1430: OK!**

**XoxChrryBlssmxox has sent you a chat invitation!  
****Accept.  
****GreenBeast1430 has joined.  
****NHSpiritChakra: …  
****GreenBeast1430: hi Sakura-san :D  
****XoxChrryBlssmxox: hi Lee :3  
****XoxChrryBlssmxox: So Neji, how are the kittens?  
****NHSpiritChakra: -.-  
****GreenBeast1430!!!!!????????!?!?!????  
****GreenBeast1430: HUH!?!?!???  
****GreenBeast1430: WHAT!?!???  
****GreenBeast1430: IM CONFUSED!!!!!  
****NHSpiritChakra: thanks sakura  
****NHSpiritChakra: thanks a lot  
****XoxChrryBlssmxox: OO; you never said not to tell anyone…  
****GreenBeast1430: COULD SOMEONE PLZ FILL ME IN!?!?  
****NHSpiritChakra: don't fill him in. He doesn't need to know  
****XoxChrryBlssmxox: ...for now…  
****NHSpiritChakra: -.-  
****GreenBeast1430: ;  
****NHSpiritChakra has left.  
**

**XoxChrryBlssmxox: Why don't you want him to know?  
****NHSpiritChakra: You weren't at the sleepover…  
****XoxChrryBlssmxox: oO?  
****NHSpiritChakra: ok, ya, I take that back >;;  
****XoxChrryBlssmxox: lol X3  
****NHSpiritChakra: …do you really laugh out loud every time you say  
you do? You know what they say…  
****XoxChrryBlssmxox?  
NHSpiritChakra: ****every time you type 'lol' when you don't laugh, you get another… cat…  
****XoxChrryBlssmxox: XDDDDDDDD  
****NHSpiritChakra: DAMN THE IRONY!!!!!  
****XoxChrryBlssmxox: ROFLMFAO!!!!!  
****XoxChrryBlssmxox: YOU MUST SAY THAT A LOT, NEJI!!  
****NHSpiritChakra: . . .  
****NHSpiritChakra: stfu**

**GreenBeast1430: PLEASE :'(  
****NHSpiritChakra: You're making yourself a nuisance  
****GreenBeast1430: I just wanna KNOW D:  
****NHSpiritChakra: I don't bug you about your problems  
****NHSpiritChakra: …Not that you probably have any worth bugging about  
****GreenBeast1430: >  
****GreenBeast1430:   
****GreenBeast1430: >;;  
****NHSpiritChakra: …  
****NHSpiritChakra: I don't wanna know  
****NHSpiritChakra: I just don't  
****GreenBeast1430: I'm jk! Geeze XD;; **

**1RedFang1: sup  
****1RedFang1: Akamaru says slobber all over Gingerale for him  
****NHSpiritChakra: …  
****NHSpiritChakra: I'll be sure to spread the love >;;  
****1RedFang1: We haven't seen her in a while  
****1RedFang1: Akamaru wants to see her  
****NHSpiritChakra: Don't expect to for a while  
****1RedFang1?**

**GreenBeast1430: I KNOW! ILL TELL KIBA THAT THERES A SECRET!!!  
****NHSpiritChakra: you must REALLY have a death wish  
****GreenBeast1430: 8D;;**

**XoxChrryBlssmxox: srry…. That was really funny XD  
****NHSpiritChakra: …  
****XoxChrryBlssmxox: geeze! You have to admit that was kinda funny!  
****NHSpiritChakra: fine.  
****NHSpiritChakra: haha.  
****XoxChrryBlssmxox: -.-**

**1RedFang1: THERE'S A SECRET!?!?!? I WANNA KNOW!!!**

**PandaHeadlol: w  
****NHSpiritChakra: I HATE YOU!!!!!  
****NHSpiritChakra is away.  
****PandaHeadlol: oO?  
****NHSpiritChakra's automated message: Do not Disurb. I am plenty disturbed already.  
****PandaHeadlol: . . . -.-**

He spun around in his chair and stood up. It would take him a minute to decide why he was mad at Tenten. One of the kittens squealed and he came over and peered down at them. He blinked at he realized the size difference. The brown kitten was almost twice the size of the calico. He smirked, wondering if that would ever change. He lay down on his bed and watched them in all their boring, yet somehow calming glory, the anger flowing out of his system. When he saw calm again, he went back to his computer.

**NHSpiritChakra had returned from away.  
****PandaHeadlol: What the hell was that all about ;;  
****NHSpiritChakra: Yeah… srry  
****NHSpiritChakra: I was mad  
****NHSpiritChakra: and I thought I was mad at you  
****NHSpiritChakra: but it turns out I was mad at my cat  
****PandaHeadlol: …oh  
****PandaHeadlol: ok  
****NHSpiritChakra: ya, I'm giving her a new nickname  
****PandaHeadlol: oh no… XD  
****NHSpiritChakra: HOOKER KITTY**

**-------**

**Sorry if there are any characters missing... the document thingy got rid of them on me : **

**I'm sorry this chapter kind of sucked... It was kind of something I thought would be cute, but probably won't play an important role later on. It was... yes, I dare to say it, a filler chapter U.U But it was amusing, right, guys? 8D Guys?**

**people: -bricks- WE WAITED FOR THIS PEICE OF CRAP CHAPTER!?**

**me: ;A; -bricked-**


	10. The Deal

Chapter 10

Gingerale paced on the floor in Neji's room in thought. After another moment, she stopped and hissed.

Neji frowned. He stood in front of his closed door, his arms crossed. He had locked her in his room, and had asked her very nicely for her to take responsibility for her kittens. According to her response, his request had been rejected. He paused to think, then replied, "Alright. How about we make a deal?"

Gingerale raised a furry brow and sat down. _"I'm listening."_

Neji smiled crookedly. "You stay here with those kittens until they're weaned. In exchange I'll take you out on occasions for a little bit and… I'll give you wet cat food every other day."

Wet cat food was something Gingerale loved, but her meals of it were few and far between. She only got it right after a big mission. And it was enough to get her to do almost anything.

Gingerale's tail swished happily and she nodded.

Neji looked pleased. "Good. Now if you want to come with me to pick up the food… common."

The cat let out a _mrrow _of excitement and climbed onto Neji's shoulder, and as soon as they were set, they headed for the pet store.

Needless to say, Gingerale had very expensive taste. Neji ended up spending a total of $15 on canned cat food, much more than he would have liked. On their way home, Gingerale jumped off his shoulders and started to stroll around town, and Neji calmly followed her, expecting as much after leaving her cooped up in the house for so long. She found her way to one of the training grounds. The cat was quick to throw herself into the grass and roll around in it happily.

Neji placed the bag of food down by a tree and watch her in amusement as her medium length fur started to turn green along her sides and back. He suddenly heard a rustle in the distance behind him, and knew exactly what it was. He sighed. _"Three… two… one…"_

Right on queue Akamaru launched from wherever he was behind him and pinned Neji to the ground with his front paws. Kiba, who was riding on his back, jumped off and looked down at Neji with a mischievous smile. "Can I know the secret now?"

Neji's eyes widened and turned into a glare. "You tracked me down and pinned me under a dog so that you could know a secret that Lee- of all people LEE- tells you supposedly exists over an IM!?"

Kiba frowned. "…Well when you say it like that it sounds so indignant…"

Gingerale looked around for a moment, then let out a delighted _"mrrow" _and bounded over to Akamaru. She rubbed against his legs, a purr sounding loudly.

Akamaru looked down at her, and his tail wagged happily. He stepped off Neji and walked a little ways away and lay down. She followed, and he pawed her in between his paws and began to lick her all over, dousing her in dog slobber. The ecstatic cat just sat there purring.

Neji watched and made a disgusted face, before turning back to Kiba. "I have no reason to tell you anything."

Kiba continued to frown, so Neji went on:

"What reason do I have to tell you now? This isn't exactly the perfect way to get what you want."

Kiba didn't move for a moment, and then his ear twitched and her swung his head around to look at Akamaru, who seemed to be chatting with Gingerale. He smirked slyly and turned back to Neji. "Gingerale is a chatterbox," he sneered, and then turned back around.

Akamaru's ears perked in interest as Gingerale meowed and mewed to him, and then suddenly he looked quite surprised. The cat nodded and pointed with the tip of her tail to the bag of cat food. Akamaru looked at it, and then looked at Kiba and mumbled something.

Kiba listened intently to him, and then slowly turned back to Neji, his face contorted into a slightly disturbed expression. "Kittens!?"

Neji stared at Kiba blankly, and then looked pass him and shot Gingerale a death glare. She gave him an innocent look and swished her tail. He whipped his head backed to look at Kiba. "Yeah. What's it to you?"

Kiba stared at him blankly.

Neji glared at him for another moment, and then stood up and walked pass Gingerale, who hadn't moved. "Common, Gingerale," he mumbled, picking up the bag as he passed. "And don't even think about getting on my shoulder, unless you want me to break your legs."

The soaked, grass-stained cat stood up and did a full body shake, sending dog slobber flying off her whiskers, and then trotted after Neji.

"Now I have to wash you down in the shower," Neji mumbled as they turned the corner.

Gingerale purred.

"…And then I have to dry you with my blow-dryer…"

"_Mrrrooow mrrow!"_ Gingerale said excitedly. She loved the showerhead, and she loved the blow dryer. Why, Neji would never know.

The kittens were mewling anxiously when Neji opened the door to his room. He knew it was about time to feed them, so he had to make Gingerale's wash quick. He made a swift gesture toward the bathroom, and she bounded into the bathtub. He put the bag down by the door and followed her in.

Grabbing the shower nozzle down from its stand, he looked down at Gingerale and made a disgusted face. The drool was drying and getting crusty. He turned the shower knob to hot and ran it over her until she was soaked to the skin. She looked like a drowned rat when she was wet.

When she was completely soaked Neji turned off the water and ran a single squirt of his shampoo through her fur- mostly over the grass stains- and then rinsed it off and slicked all the extra water off her. His fingers were covered in clumps of white and ginger hair, and he washed it off with the shower nozzle as she did a full body shake. Then she jumped out and onto the sink, slipping slightly on her wet paws.

Neji straitened and pulled out his blow dryer. He hooked it up and set it on high. Several minutes later Gingerale was a huge ball of fluff again. He picked up one of his brushes and smoothed it down until it was back to normal, and then he put away the blow dryer and pulled the wad of hair out of the bathtub. As he did so Gingerale jumped down from the sink and trotted into the room, purring loudly. Neji followed more slowly.

Suddenly Gingerale hissed and smacked his foot as he walked off the linoleum bathroom floor and onto the carpet, and he looked down to see that he had just missed stepping on the calico kitten. He took a step back, and Gingerale picked it up by the scruff. As she carried it to his bed, Neji picked up the brown kitten, who was mewling next to the bed on the floor.

He placed it next to the calico kitten, and Gingerale curled into a ball around the two. Neji pulled the plug on the electric pad and moved it under his nightstand. "Alright. You'll be fed wet cat food tomorrow."

Gingerale nodded slowly, and Neji got up and picked up his cell phone. He dialed a number, and after a couple of rings it picked up. "Hello?" said a familiar voice on the other end.

"Tenten. It's Neji. Gingerale is going to take care of the kittens. You can bring the one you have over to my place."

There was a pause, and then Tenten said, "How did you get Gingerale to agree to that!?"

"We made a deal. Now do you want to get that kitten off your back or not?"

"Only Neji Hyuuga can make a solid deal with a cat," she muttered quietly, before saying louder, "Alright, I'll be there in fifteen minutes… What are you gonna do with all the formula?"

"I dunno. I'll keep some of it just in case… after the kittens are weaned I don't know what I'll do with it."

"We'll sort that out later… I'll see you in a few. Bye." She hung up.

Neji closed the crazer call phone and looked at Gingerale. She was curled around the two kittens, her fluffy tail resting on her nose. _"'Only Neji Hyuuga can make a solid deal with a cat'!? What is that supposed to mean!?"_

About fifteen minutes later there was a knock on the doorframe, and Neji got up and walked to the opened door. Tenten stood in the doorway, holding the ginger kitten in a blue and green baby blanket. Neji nodded hello and gestured for her to follow him. The two walked through the house and into Neji's room, where Gingerale was still laying on the bed.

Gingerale lifted her head sleepily and waved her tail to Tenten in welcome. With a wide yawn she uncurled herself, revealing the two sleeping kittens. Tenten smiled at her and placed the ginger kitten next to the other two. Gingerale looked at the ginger kitten next to the to her other two for a moment, and then leaned over and sniffed it. She snorted and pulled the kitten in front of her and started giving it a good tongue bath.

Tenten laughed. "You don't like the way the kitten smells!? I find that offensive!"

Gingerale looked at her, still washing the kitten, and then looked back at the kitten, disinterested in Tenten's words.

Neji watched Gingerale finish the kitten's wash and then nose it to her side next to the calico kitten. A thought suddenly occurred to him. "Are they males or females?"

"Uh…" Tenten stammered, "I don't know… I don't think it'll matter until they're weaned anyway… Oh!" she added, "I know that calicos are always girls!"

"Hn…" That didn't seem to make sense. "Why?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. They just are. I think it's just a trait in cats…" She picked up the baby blanket.

Neji watched Gingerale curl up again, her soft purr sailing through the air. "Well, like you said, it doesn't matter for now. We'll figure it out when they're older."

**Notice 'ONE of Neji's brushes' XD lol, sorry, that was very amusing to write. In case anyone is wondering about the whole cat in the shower thing, (not that anyone IS) my mom used to have a four foot long cat that used to climb in the shower with her X3 That's where that idea came from. **

**In the next chapter I'll skip ahead, and it will be from Gingerale and her kitten's POV! Coming soon!**

**_The more reviews i get, the faster I write._**


	11. The Kitty Sodas

Gingerale stretched and stood up as she woke to the light coming through the window in Neji's room. She looked at her three kittens sprawled out on different parts of the bed. The calico one was by Neji's feet. The ginger one was curled against the wall, half under Neji's pillow. The brown one was at the farthest end of the bed, farthest away from anyone. Gingerale purred in content and then turned to Neji. She jumped on the human's chest and pushed her muzzle into his face. "It's morning!" she meowed over her purr. "Wake up, wake up! I'm hungry!"

Neji stirred and pushed his long-toed paw into her side, causing her to stumbled off him. "Let me sleep," he muttered without opening his eyes.

Gingerale's tail tip twitched irritably and she jumped into his splayed out hair, entangling herself in it on purpose. "Get up!" she mewed.

He moaned. "Alright, ALRIGHT! Just get out of my hair."

Pleased, she got up and hopped off the bed, and Neji threw the covers off himself and got up. Gingerale wove between his legs as he dragged himself across the floor and grabbed the last can of food. He opened it, and the mouth-watering smell quickly reached her nose. Neji dumped the food into the dish, and she dove at it hungrily.

There was a soft creakfrom the bed, and a moment later a cat gurgle. Gingerale slowly looked up, licking her lips. The calico kitten bounced to the edge of the bed and tumbled off to the floor below. She landed with a surprised squeak, and Neji came over and picked her up. She rubbed herself over his paws, and he scratched behind her ears. "Mornin, Neji!" she mewed in delight.

"Good morning, Sprite," Neji mumbled quietly.

Sprite purred louder, and Neji put her down. She looked sad, but then she bounced over to her mother and rubbed against her flank. "Mornin, Momma!" she mewed with the same delight as she had showed to Neji.

"Away from me while I'm eating," Gingerale growled, returning to her meal.

Sprite took a few steps back, and after a moment she hopped back onto the bed. "Wake up!" Gingerale heard her whisper.

For a moment there was no reply, and then the ginger kitten mewed, "Alright...I'm up."

Gingerale finished her meal several minutes later and jumped onto the bed. At the same moment the two entangled sisters rolled pass her, caught up in a playfight. She watched them roll all the way across the bed. Gingerale pulled her gaze away from them and padded to the opposite side of the bed to where the brown kitten was still sleeping. She prodded him in the side with her paw, mewing, "Wake up... It's morning."

The groggy kitten slowly lifted his head and glared at his mother with sleepy eyes. "What'd you do that for?" he mewed irritably, half of his words muffled by a yawn.

Gingerale's tail curled indignantly. "I just thought you'd like to be woken up by me rather than being rolled over by your sisters!" she meowed scornfully.

Unphased by her scornful words, the brown kitten turned to watch his sisters tumble around together on the other side of the bed, and then rose to his feet and arched his back in a large stretch. "Whatever," he mumbled, before jumping off the bed and drinking from the waterbowl.

As he began to drink, Neji walked out of the bathroom and scooped him up. The kitten let out a startled "eep!" and tried to squirm free.

Neji kept a grip on him and smirked. "What's wrong, Coke? Aren't you happy to see me? You slept in so long, I thought you might have died in your sleep!"

Coke's tail swished back and forth like a kitty metranome. "Put me down," he pleaded, trying again to jump out of Neji's grasp.

This time Neji let him go, and as Coke stalked away his sisters ran to Neji's paws. "Good morning, Neji!" the ginger kittten mewed.

Neji picked her up and scratched behind her ears. "You're usually up first, Cream Soda," he said with fake surprise.

Cream Soda purred and put a paw on his face.

Neji pushed her paw away and flipped her onto her back. One of her hind legs was strangly shaped and didn't go the right way. Neji held her with one arm and examined the leg with his other paw.

Cream's leg had always been like that ever since she could walk. It did not bother her, it just made her walk strangly and run sideways a little. She couldn't really use it all that well, and when she sat or lay down she did not tuck it under her like she should. She could not jump or climb as high as Coke or Sprite, but she could usually care less. It was clear that the leg did not hurt her at all, and she adapted to its disadvantages.

"I'm getting that leg checked out... It's not supposed to be like that," Neji said, mostly to himself, Gingerale presumed by his tone.

"What about me! I want some attention, too!" Sprite whined, pulling at Neji's elbow to try to lower his arm to her head.

Neji looked down at her, and placed Cream down and picked her up. "Pet meee!" the calico purred, wrapping her paws around the human's neck and wedging her head under his chin.

Neji chuckled and rubbed her head for a minute, and then set her down. He walked back over to where he kept the cats' food and picked up the hard kitten food. He filled the bowl and changed the water, and then turned to Gingerale. "Come on, Gingerale," he said, "I've got to talk to someone and I know you want to come."

"Alright!" she mewed blissfully, and hopped onto his shouders.

Coke slinked from his spot in the dark space between the night stand and under the bed, to under the bed, uninterested in the activity he was predicting was about to happen. Sprite and Cream Soda looked crestfallen. "Don't go!" Cream meowed at the same exact moment that Sprite meowed, "I want to come, too!"

Neji looked at them both, and was about to say something when Gingerale meowed dryly, "No, you two stay here!"

Cream flinced and sat down, but Sprite didn't move.

Neji paused, and then turned around and turned the doorknob. As soon as the door cracked open Sprite bolted out as fast as she could. Not really sure what to do next, she turned and ran down the hall. Before she knew what had happened, she was in someone's arms.

"Hey there, kitty cat!" the human giggled.

Neji ran into the hall and looked at her. Gingerale glared at her daughter scornfully from his shoulders. "Hanabi!" Neji said in surprise. "...Hey, how you like to play with that kitten until I get back?"

Sprite sqirmed in the human's grip, and Hanabi readjusted so that Sprite was more comfortable. "Really? Sure!"

Gingerale's tail swished in amusement as she saw the look of confusion on Sprite's face. Hanabi swung around with the kitten and walked into another room.

"Don't let her out of your room," Neji called after Hanabi. He turned to look at Gingerale as the door closed. "Do you think that'll teach her to not go where she's not supposed to?"

Gingerale let out a _"mrrow!" _of laugher. "Of course not!" she mewed.

Neji smiled crookedly. "That's what I'm thinking, too."

With that said, they headed out of the house.

oOOoOOoOOoOOoOOo

Cream Soda sat there as the door slammed shut and Neji, Sprite, and her mother disapeared on the other side.She listened to the muffled voices beyond the door until they became distant and quiet.

As the last of the sound died away, Coke poked his head out from under the bed and looked around. "...Where's Sprite?" he asked.

Cream didn't look away from the door as she replied, "I don't know..."

Coke walked out from under the bed and started to give his chest fur a wash. "Maybe she won't come back," he meowed between licks.

"She can't be gone!" Cream wailed. "I'll have no one to play with but you!"

When Coke didn't reply, she turned and started to creep up on him. He ignored her, and she pounced on him in an attemped to pin him down.

He fell to his side and kicked at her stomach as she bit his front leg playfully. "Get off, Cream Soda! I don't want to play!" he growled.

She flopped to the ground next to him and wrapped her front legs around his neck. But he was bigger than her, and he kicked her away and scrambled to his feet. He glared at her, his ears flat back on his head and his tail swishing in irritation, and then he stalked away. He jumped onto the windowsill and lay down on it to sun himself.

Cream watched him, and then walked up to the windowsill and up gazed at it from the floor. "I wanna sun, too!" she meowed.

Coke glanced down at her with not even the slightest bit of interest, and then his head disapeared onto the windowsill again.

Cream crouched and bunched her muscles, and the jumped strait up. She reached for the edge, but she came short and fell back to the ground. Se tried again, but this time she unintentionally jumped sideways and missed the windowsill completely. She landed ungracefully on her side and she tried again, and again, and again But she couldnt't make it. She saw Coke's tail swish in amusement. "No fair!" she meowed. "Stupid leg... Coka-Cola, help me!"

Coke let out an amused _"mrrow" _but didn't move.

"Coke, you jerk!" Cream hissed, jumping again. "Help me!" I'm your sister! Help me up!"

oOOoOOoOOoOOoOOo

Sprite looked around the room she was in from Hanabi's arms. She let out a curious gurgle at her new, unfirmiliar surroundings.

Hanabi suddenly dropped her on the ground. "What do you wanna do, kitty cat?"

Sprite turned to face her. "Silly human! My name is Sprite, not Kitty Cat!" she mewed.

Hanabi smiled. "Okay! Let's play!" she decided, and walked across the room. She picked up a peice of string from her desk, and untangled it. Then she walked back over to Sprite and dangled it in front of her.

Sprite watched it swing back and forth for a moment, and then unsheathed her claws and dove at it. The string jumped away, and she chased after it and swatted. It got caught in her claw and pulled at it. As the string came loose after a moment, it started spinning around her, and she chased after it until she lost track of it from dizziness. She looked around, and found it above her, dangling high above her head. She crouched low and her tail swished, and the kitten jumped strait up and wrapped her claws around the dangling string. She bit it, and for a moment it tugged, but then she fell to the ground with the string, and tackled it. Satisfied, she chewed on her prize.

Hanabi laughed and kneeled down. She pulled the string away from the kitten and made it slither across the ground.

Sprite crept across the ground in pursuit of it, and smacked at it with unsheathed claws. It got stuck and she lifted her paw to secure her grip, but it slipped away and she dove after it again.

oOOoOOoOOoOOoOOo

Gingerale was crouching on a stool at Ichiraku's, lapping up what was left of Neji's ramen broth. She finally looked up and licked her lips, a purr of satisfaction rising in her chest.

Neji was sitting next to her, watching her with his head on his paw. "You take forever," he mumbled, picking up the emply bowl and putting it on the counter.

Gingerale swished her tail and licked her lips again. She sniffed the air, and over the other scents she could make out the scent of a firmiliar friend. She bounded off the chair and through the streets until she found the female human. She let out a friendly meow to announce her arrival and rubbed between the girl's legs.

The girl looked down at her. "Well hello, Gingerale," she said, and picked up the cat.

"Hello, Sakura," Gingerale purred, pawing at a lock of pink hair around Sakura's shoulders.

Sakura stroked her head and looked up. "Neji, how old are her kittens now?"

Gingerale cranked her neck to look at him as he spoke. "I'm not sure exactly... a couple months."

"They're three moons," Gingerale meowed. Both humans looked at her, and she knew that they didn't understand her. She sighed. _"I love them to death, but they're so stupid..."_

**OK, so this was origonally one very long chapter, but I broke it up into two for two reasons.**

**1) I was too tired to write the whole chapter  
2) I've been keeping you poor people waiting far too long. **

**And for that I am very sorry. I've been having some problems with MS Word. It wouldn't open. So I had to find an alternative to type in. I apologize for typos and grammer.**

**In case you're still confused:**


	12. The Kitty Sodas Reunited

Chapter 12

After not too long, Cream Soda gave up trying to catch Coke, and instead she curled up in Neji's computer chair. Both kittens were now asleep.

Suddenly the computer made a sound, and both kittens jumped awake with a start. Cream stood up and cocked her head at the computer. "What was that?" she meowed, jumping onto the desk. Her bad leg swiped over the mouse as she did so, and the monitor blinked on, making Cream's fur prickle in surprise.

Coke blinked and lifted his head to look at her. He got up and arched his back in a stretch, and then jumped off the windowsill and onto the chair. Gazing at the screen, he concluded, "Neji left the raoring box on." There was a tiny hint of scorn in his voice as he added, "You must have woken it up."

Unphazed by her borther's scorn, Cream looked at the screeen. As she did so, it made the strange noise again, and something blinked into a little box right in the middle of the monitor. Cream and Coke both jumped and stared at it in puzzlement.

Neji had left his IM on.

Coke stepped up, and his paw landed on the keyboard's 'm' key. A long line of m's appeared. His other paw landed on the 'g', and as he transfurred his weight, the same thing happened.

Cream chased the letters across the monitor as they appeared, smacking her paw on the growing line of m's and g's. "This is fun!" she mewed.

Coke watched the letters for a moment, and then looked down where his paws were. He made the connection after a minute, and after pressing several other keys he pressed the big one: The enter key.

**Pandaheadlol: ya there?  
****Pandaheadlol: yo?  
****NHSpiritChakra: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggldnawtgoh  
****NHSpiritChakra: wkwoahwdjdi  
****Pandaheadlol:?  
****Pandaheadlol: what? woah?  
****NHSpiritChakra: mmmmmwkwghagndkdkalhfwaohgw  
****Pandaheadlol: are you like, swearing or something?  
****NHSpiritChakra: gggggggggggwwwwwwwwhhhhhhhhhttttttttiidb  
****NHSpiritChakra: dnowthgwiegheo  
****Pandaheadlol: ...  
****Pandaheadlol: are you mad at me or somethin?**

Cream looked at her brother with excitement. "I wanna try!" she meowed impatiently.

Coke's ears went back. "No. My fun."

Cream's tail twitched irritably. "Let me try!" Before he could reply, she jumped onto the keyboard and started to dance across it. She watched in delight as the screeen filled with letters.

Coke hissed and swatted at her, causing her to lose her balance and fall onto her side on the keyboard. "Mine!" he growled, and jumped on her. They both to fall to the floor, entangled in a fight.

Cream hissed in rage and scratched his face. She kicked at his stomache in an attempt to dislodge him, but his weight bore down on her hard and her kicks did her little good. She let out a raspy yowl of defeat, and Coke released her and stalked back under the bed. Cream scrambled to her paws and waited for him to disapear, before sitting down to smooth down her ruffled fur.

**Pandaheadlol: ...  
****Pandaheadlol: hello?  
****Pandaheadlol: . . .  
****Pandaheadlol: this is weird, even for you, Hyuuga.**

oOOoOOoOOo

Gingerale's tail swung back and forth in contempt. "You liar," she meowed at Neji. "You know that you don't want them to lose their names!"

Neji sighed."Stupid moody cat." He raised a paw to pet her, but she batted it away. He continued more quietly, "Their names are our secret..."

Gingerale no longer wanted to listen. She jumped off his shoulders and strolled ahead of him, her tail tip twitching back and forth. She made her way to the Hyuuga mannor without much attention, and went to Hanabi's closed door. She looked at the doorknob and paused, then bounded upward and wrapped her paws around the handle. With a satisfied purr she let go as the handle slid downward under her weight and the door cracked open. She pushed her head through the door and looked around.

Hanabi raised her head, a look of surprise on her face. A moment later Sprite's little white and brown head popped up behind Hanabi. With a flick of her tail, Gingerale summoned Sprite to her side. The calico ball of fluff bounded to her side. Gingerale gave her daughter a quick lick between the ears, and then walked her to Neji's door, making sure she was could not make a dash for the open door.

Sprite looked up at the doorknob at Neji's door expectantly, and then at her mother. "Why don't you open this door, Momma?" she asked.

Gingerale rested her tail tip on Sprite's shoulder. "Because there are some things that Neji does not need to know," she replied. She cocked her head toward the door, and a moment later Neji appeared. Gingerale's fur prickled as her irritation came back, but she forced her fur to lie flat on her shoulders again. Instead she just looked up at him expectantly as he walked over and looked down a her. A moment later he pushed the door open, and she and sprite darted in.

Cream Soda was lying on the floor, watching as the door opened. As soon as Sprite pushed her way through, Cream was on her paws, galloping to her sister's side.

Gingerale walked in after her and sighed. As she watched Sprite flop to the ground so that Cream could lick her ears, she wondered how they would ever manage without eachother. Neji had told her all about giving them to other humans. The concept confused her, and she was not exactly sure of what it intailed, but she knew that her kittens would be seperated, and just that, and watching her two daughters was all she needed to make her tail droop.

------

**Woo. Finally found the time and the stamina to get the second half of the chapter finished... which turned out to be a great deal shorter than I thought it was...**

**I'm sorry... this IS another filler chapter, but the next chapter gets back on track! I'm sorry if you guys are getting sick of these fillers, but if I didn't put them in, then the ending would suck. They build a lot of character depth, and when you get to the end, you'll see that these chapters help with the feeling.**


	13. Two down, one to go

If there was one thing that Neji was really starting to hate, it was the cooing and giggling of Konoha girls.

Gingerale sat on his shoulders, swatting at a hand ever time she got the chance, but she was not the one that the girls' focus was on.

Cream Soda was walking in tight circles in Neji's cupped hands, her medium-length fur sticking out from between his fingers as she did so.

"Can we establish a three-feet rule here?" Neji demanded as he stopped and pulled himself out of the crowd.

The girls completely ignored him- if any of them heard him at all, that is- and quickly stormed him again, trying to see the scared, confused kitten that Neji was holding to his chest and shielding from the crowd.

Neji tried to push them away while trying to move forward at the same time. It wasn't working well. _"Stupid, stupid!" _he scorned himself silently. _"You should have expected this! Why didn't you put her in a bag or something!?" _His mind suddenly sprung an idea. He cranked his neck so that his head was as close to Gingerale's as it could be. She leaned down so that she could hear him, and he whispered, "Take her and run."

Praying that she understood him, he opened his hands, revealing Cream Soda huddled close to his chest. But before anyone could start gawking over her, Gingerale jumped form Neji's shoulders, grabbed Cream by the scruff, and dashed away. Neji watched the two disappear around the corner, and then he turned to face the girls. "If anyone follows her or mobs me again, no one will ever come out again!"

The girls stared at him for a minute, and then backed away and started to drift away. Neji waited until they were all gone, and then he jumped onto the rooftops in search of Gingerale and Cream.

Gingerale was a black away and half lost. She was trying to get her way to Sakura's house by scent, but the scents were mingled, and she couldn't keep track of just one with Cream's strong scent in her nose. The kitten was flailing in confusion and agitation, trying to grasp the situation that she was in from her mother's jaws. Gingerale went to a part of the street where it was less crowded and put her down. She gave her a few reassuring licks between the ears, and then picked her up again and set off.

Neji spotted them and jumped down behind her. Gingerale's fur stood on end in surprise, and she spun around quickly, causing Cream to swing uncomfortably from her jaws. Her bad leg dragged across the ground, and she flinched as she stopped swinging.

Neji leaned down and picked Cream up. "Run," he mumbled, before dashing toward Sakura's house. Gingerale ran after him, zigzagging between people to keep up.

It wasn't long before they came to the house. Sakura was waiting outside the door, looking very annoyed. "What took you so long?" she barked.

"Fan girls," Neji muttered, and Gingerale shuttered overdramatically.

Sakura sighed, and a tiny smile spread across her face. "Lucky for you, Tsunade-sama didn't call me. I would of been gone if she needed me."

Neji let out an uninterested "Hn..."

Sakura glared at him, and then opened the door and motioned for Neji to head in after her. She led him through the house and down to the basement, where there was a metal table and a shelf of herbs and other medical supplies.

She came around to the other side of the table and rested her elbows on the table. It let off a quiet _"squeak". _"Who am I dealing with?" she asked, eyeing Neji's closed hands expectantly.

Neji pulled the kitten from his shirt and placed her on the table. Cream tumbled our of his hands and sat up. Her bad leg stuck out from her side as it always did, looking very out of place.

"She's adorable!... She, right?" Sakura added quickly, pulling the kitten closer to her and scratching her chin.

Neji nodded. "It's her leg. It's been like that ever since she could walk."

Sakura grabbed this Cream's scruff, and with a flick of the wrist she flipped her onto her back. Like always, Cream's leg flopped strangely. Sakura looked at it for a moment, and then began to examine it with one hand, while still holding Cream by the scruff with the other to make sure that she didn't get up.

"Uh... you don't have to hold her down. She'll stay on her back if you let go," Neji mumbled with a hint of embarrassment ebbing into his tone.

Sakura looked at him for a moment, and then gave him a knowing look before looking back at her patient. She slowly let go of the kitten and put her hand on Cream's belly, and when she didn't move Sakura took Cream's bad leg with her hands again. She straitened it completely, and then tried to bend it back. It stopped about halfway where it should have, and then would not go any further. She straitened it again and felt around the joint. Her eyebrows raised and she pushed back some of the fur near the joint. To her surprise she could see a budge in the kitten's leg where the skin stretched out. The bulge was from the unaligned joint. She felt the joint again, and then made her conclusion.

She finally looked up at Neji. "She has... well, had a broken leg, probably when she was tiny, before she could walk. She must have fallen off something when she was very little," she added when she saw Neji raise a brow.

Realizing that she was not being examined anymore, Cream rolled onto her belly and trotted back to Neji. Neji picked her up, and as if on queue Gingerale jumped onto the metal table, just barely making the leap. "Should I do anything about it?" he asked stupidly, which annoyed him.

Sakura petted Gingerale and shook her head. "It doesn't bother her, by the way she acted when I toyed with it," she replied. "But if you really want to straiten it out, I could splint it. All it'll do is bother her, though... I wouldn't."

Neji gave her a look that said "Why the hell would I then?" and gestured for Gingerale to come. As she hopped onto his shoulders he nodded his thanks and turned to leave. "Alright. I'll show myself out. Thanks." As he left the basement, he was aware of Sakura's emerald gaze pressing a silent question at him, but he pretended to ignore it. She would get hr answer soon enough.

oOOoOOoOOoOOo

Two nights later, Neji was awaken by a combination of noises that puzzled him.

The first was claws ripping into wood. The second was a panicked hissing.

He sat up, but before he had a chance to do anything more, something dove into his face. Sharp claws embedded themselves into his cheeks, and he rose his hands to try to figure out who was attacking him. As soon as he felt the sleek short pelt under his fingers, he knew it was Coke.

The panicked kitten pulled himself from Neji's face and dashed back to the closed door. He ran his claws down it, creating the sharp sound that he had heard before. Coke hissed in an impatient panic and looked at Neji expectantly with wide bezel eyes.

Neji got up and walked to the door, switching on the light. He stared at Coke for a moment, and seeing the panic in his eyes he knew that the kitten knew something that he did not. The fur on Coke's back was on end, and his tail was lashing back and forth in alarm. Neji looked back at his bed where Gingerale, Cream Soda, and Sprite lay curled together, asleep.

Coke hissed again, this time louder. His tail fluffed in alarm, and Neji cocked his head to look at him again. After a short pause, he opened the door.

Without the slightest hesitation, Coke dashed out the door like a bullet. Neji followed, and to his alarm the door leading outside was open. Coke led him right to it, and Neji quickened his pace until he was next to him. He followed the kitten as he suddenly changed direction toward the back of the Hyuuga estate. With a furious yowl Coke dove into the air, and a moment later Neji saw that he was he was launching himself at. There was a hooded man close in front of him, with Hanabi sleeping in his arms.

The hooded man let out a surprised gasp as Coke landed on the back of his leg. The man fell to the ground, and Hanabi fell form the man's grasp without waking up. Neji picked her up, and after making sure that she had not been harmed, he set her aside in the grass and turned his attention back to the man.

As soon as the man had fallen onto the ground Coke ran to his head and pulled down his hood, revealing a Mist Village headband. Neji took one look at the man and summed him up. He was an outcast. Probably a gennin. He had done this mission alone on a whim.

Neji leaned down and hoisted the man into the air so that he was eyelevel with the Hyuuga's deafening stare. Coke jumped off the man and want to lay be Hanabi protectively. The man watched Coke go with wide eyes, and Neji gave the man a sharp jerk to get his attention back. His glare demanded an explanation, even though he knew exactly why the man was here.

"D-don't hurt me!" the man pleaded, his voice shaking with fear. "It was a mission! I just did what I was told! Please don't kill me!"

At that point Neji knew what his original guess about the man's social class had been right. He was tempted to kill him right then and there, but he knew that he would just be repeating history. Instead he knocked the man out and set off to the Village police to report him.

As he passed Coke, who was still laying by Hanabi, they exchanged a moment of eye contact before Neji continued to walk off. Coke remained with Hanabi, his ears pricked for any more surprises.

oOOoOOoOOoOOo

Cream Soda danced through the grass, her claws sheathed to try to catch the yard flying around her.

Waving the yarn was TenTen. Neji was standing a little way off, looking at the sky, with Gingerale at his side on the ground. Her tail was carefully wrapped around her pars, and her green eyes were dull with sadness that came strait from the clouds.

Neji glanced at her. Be now he could easily read her eyes, and the sadness in the puzzled him. He looked back at the clear blue sky to try to read what she could. A few white clouds dotted the sky, but nothing looked depressing to him. He searched, but found nothing there that would give her that emotion.

TenTen spun around with the string flying after her hand. Cream dashed after it with her clumsy limp. "So what did your uncle say about the brown kitten? You started to tell my but never told me what he concluded," she said, glancing at the back of Neji's head.

He didn't reply.

Cream was staring at the now still string at TenTen's side. She batted at it, and meowed. TenTen picked her up and stroked her back. "Does that mean he's not going to be given away?" she persisted.

"Hn," Neji replied quietly.

TenTen was starting to get irritated. "Alright then. I'll be back later. I'm just gonna do target practice with the ginger kitten."

Cream looked at her in confusion and cocked her head. Neji didn't reply.

TenTen paused, waiting for a sarcastic retort. When it didn't come she walked up to Neji's back and pushed her index finger into a spot between his shoulder blades.

As her finger made contact with his spine he flew forward with an indignant giggle. TenTen snickered.

"What the hell was that!" he snapped, spinning around.

"That was your retard button," she stated proudly, as if it was a huge accomplishment to make the Hyuuga look like a complete idiot by just poking him. "You weren't listening, so I pushed it."

Gingerale blinked, the sadness fading away, and let out a "mrrow" of laugher. Cream let out her own amused giggle.

Neji raised a brow, and felt his back as if he expected to find a kunai lodged in his spine. "Retard button?" he repeated, demanding an explanation.

TenTen ignored him. "I asked you what happened with the brown kitten," she said, setting Cream down again and spinning the yarn.

"Uncle said that he can stay, but he has duties, and that he has to stay outside my room. He's a guard cat," he added quickly, seeing that TenTen looked puzzled.

Gingerale purred in amusement. Neji bunted her with his foot, causing her to stumble.

TenTen laughed. "Guard cat? That sounds retarded."

Neji shrugged. He could think of no other way to put it. "That kit isn't good for much else. He's not very social. It's a good job for him."

She laughed again. "Whatever," she mumbled, turning her full attention back to Cream.

Neji watched her for a moment, an then looked at Gingerale, who swished her tail and flicked her ear in the general direction of home. Neji nodded and turned back around, looking at the sky again. "The ginger kitten's name..."

TenTen stopped and looked at him, puzzled. "What?" Cream tackled the yarn and rolled over it, getting one of her claws stuck in it and pulling it out of TenTen's hand. She leaned down to pull it away.

"It's Cream Soda."

"What?" TenTen repeated, picking up the yarn and the kitten. "Neji, you-" She broke off as she turned around, only to find that Neji and Gingerale were gone.

She stood there, looking at where they had once been. The kitten squirmed in her grasp, and she turned to look at her. "Cream... Soda?" The name seemed to fit perfectly, and she said it slowly to get the full feel of it.

Cream mewed and head butted her hand, a deep purr rumbling her entire body.

"Cream Soda."

Several blocks away, Neji had almost made it back to the Hyuuga manor. Gingerale totted after him, her tail dragging in the dust.

Neji stopped and looked back at her. He didn't think that what they had just done would be that hard on her. He sighed and picked her up. She didn't try to crawl onto his shoulders. "You know we had to," he murmured to her as he started to walk again.

Gingerale sighed and rested her head on his chest. Her whiskers tickled his chin. Neji realized that Cream was not the only thing troubling her, and he remembered the look of despair in her eyes when she had been looking into the sky.

"Her fate is sealed with TenTen. You don't have to worry about her."

But when Gingerale took no notice of his words, he wondered, _"Is there something _I _should be worrying about?" _

_**----**_

**TEH RETARD BUTTON IS A WONDERFUL LITTLE BUTTON, BUT IT TAKES GREAT SKILL AND PERSICION TO FIND IT WITH THE FIRST POKE! It is usually somewhere just a little under the where the shoulder blades end, or parallel to the ending of them. It is on the spine, and to activate it, simply push your finger into the victim's spine. Some people do not have retard buttons. Take this into consideration before you go groping your friends in search for a moment of laughter at thier expence. **

**omj D: I totallly neglected you guys this time... I posted this on DeviantArt like, two weeks ago... But I kept forgetting to convert it into a document compatable with well... I hope you'll forgive me... **

**The more comments I get, the faster I write.**


	14. Little Blue and Little Red

Neji walked next to his house and stopped at the front door. Coke lay curled in a ball just to the side of the opened door, and as he came up the kitten's ear twitched and he raised his head. When he saw Neji he dipped his head, before curling up again. 

Neji entered and went down the hall, Gingerale still in his arms, and pushed the door to room open. His eyes fell the the middle of the floor, where Sprite was running around under a little blue warn out piece of cloth.

He took a step forward, and Sprite wriggled out from under the cloth and looked around. When she did not see her sister, she started to meow loudly. Gingerale murmured sympathetically, jumped off Neji's shoulders, and gave her ears comforting licks.

Neji watched them for a minute, and then his gaze returned to the blue cloth. He stared at it for a moment, and then picked it up and looked at it. It was about four feet long, with fringing edges. It was baby blue with big, warn out patches of lighter blue, thinned from hears of dragging across floors and hugging. A small hole was in the center of one of the dullest spots. Neji blinked. This was his old baby blanket.

He instinctively clutched it tightly with one hand. He looked at Gingerale as she let out an amused "mrrow." Still in a surprised daze, it took him a moment to react as she leapt into the air with outstretched paws and clung to it with her claws, dangling in the air.

Neji jerked the blanket toward him protectively. It made a sharp riiiip sound and a new hole formed where one of Gingerale's claws were. "Gingerale!" he snapped, releasing the blanket and quickly smacking the cat on the nose as she fell to the floor.

Gingerale landed on the ground next to Sprite, who let out a startled squeak as she jumped back. Gingerale scrambled to her pawls, and, disregarding Neji's sharp punishment, picked up the little blue blanket and dashed out of the room as she made a flick of her tail. Sprite dashed after her, and they ran right around Neji and out the open door, out of the room. Neji chased after them.

The two cats wove through the hallway, pass Hinata's room and to Hanabi's. Gingerale made a sharp turn into her room, with Sprite making a clumsy turn of direction as she followed.

Neji stopped before he came to the door. He watched the two disappear into Hanabi's room silently, before turning around and walking back to his own.

A minute later, Gingerale reappeared in the doorway, her tail held high like a banner. Sprite pranced in after her with blissful innocence. She bounded across the room and onto the bed next to Neji. She rubbed against his leg, a soft purr rumbling in her little chest.

Neji glared at her and pushed her away. He was in no mood to forgive her.

Looking hurt, Sprite backed away from him and jumped off the bed, heading to the open closet. Before she go there, however, Neji ran un front of her and slid the door closed. "So that's where she got the blanket from... but how the hell did she get it open?"

Sprite recoiled, upset, and then turned around and crawled under the bed, her tail drooping behind her. Gingerale watcher her go, and then walked over to Neji and smacked his ankle. "Meow mew Meow!" she said scornfully, and started to walk away.

Before she had the chance to get very far Neji grabbed her tail, forcing her to stop, and picked her up. She looked irritated, but he glared at her right back. "It's more your fault than it is hers," he said flatly, rising her to eyelevel so that their noses were only inches apart. "Why did you do that!?"

Gingerale looked at the light coming from his computer monitor, as if it had suddenly become very interesting.

Neji sighed and dropped her. She landed on the ground without complaint. He slipped his shoes on and headed out the door. "Stay here," was the only thing he said to the two as he left. As he went outside, Coke gave him a curious look, as if he couldn't understand why his mother was not with him, but did nothing.

oOOooOOoOOoOOo

About an hour later, Hanabi walked into her room to find Neji's blanket in the middle of the floor. Puzzled, she walked in and picked it up. When she still did not recognize it, she walked to her sister's room. She knocked on the door and then pushed it open.

Hinata sat at her computer desk, indulged in some kind of story. She jumped to attention and turned to look at Hanabi. "What is it?" she asked, pushing her long hair out of her face.

"Onii-san, what's this?" Hanabi asked as she held up the little blue blanket.

Hinata started at it for a moment. She blinked and out her hand to her mouth, muffling a giggle. "That's Little..." she trailed off, realizing that Hanabi was probably the last person that Neji would want to know about the blanket. She did not know how it ended up in Hanabi's room, but if she hadn't been told what it was, then it probably was not supposed to be there.

Seeing that Hanabi was still waiting for an answer, Hinata rose from her chair and walked to the doorway. "It's nothing of great importance. May I have it please?"

Hanabi paused, and then handed the blanket to her. Then she turned around and walked back to her own room.

Hinata watched her go. As she left she closed the door and looked at the blanket. Memories of her and Neji as little kids came back as if she were reliving them all over again. She remembered Neji carrying it around protectively.She remembered how she had once tried to take it from him, resulting in a tiny rip. He had refused to so much as look at her for weeks after that. That little rip had noticeably grown into the first small hole that she now saw. That was when she had gotten Little Red.

Feeling the need to make the memories more vivid, she walked to her closet and slid the door open. She searched the top shelf, until she found her own worn out baby blanket. She pulled it out and unfolded it. The red fabric was in much better condition that Neji's Little Blue. But that was because Little Red was a few years newer.

A photo slipped out of the red blanket and fell to the ground. Hinata picked it up and looked at it. A smile spread across her face and she giggled, taking in the moment and memory captured in the little photograph.

Her and Neji stood outside the tea house. She was four years old, and he was five. There was a noticeable age difference. Hinata stood on the left. Her eyes were closed in a delighted expression and she was hugging her brand new red blanket to her cheek, snuggling it happily. Neji stood on the right, at an angle that looked like he was turned away, from her, and was giving her an unimpressed look. His blue blanket was clutched in one hand, close to his stomach. He was holding it protectively even though there was clearly no threat to it. He had always held Little Blue like that, while Hinata had preferred to prance around with Little Red proudly. The picture caught both their personalities perfectly.

She stared at the picture for a moment longer, and then folded both blankets up and put them at the very back of her closet. She stuck the photo between them, and the closed the closet securely and went back to reading her story.

**WOO! Another chapter finished! This one, I actualy made a picture for... but I los the picture before I had a chance to scan it... I WILL find it though! And when I do, I'll put the link in my profile! **

**Also, I'll add some fanarts to my profile, too... it just occured to me that I should do that! So, look for the links soon! **

**The more reviews I get, the faster I'll type.**

**P.S.- Believe it or not, this was NOT a filler chapter, and it will come back into the story :D Just be patient. **


	15. Free Souls Once Again

**I have a feeling that I'm gonna get some anti-Sakuras on my case. I will tell you this now. I. Don't. Care. Please don't give me crap about it either. Happy reading:) **

Neji originally had nowhere to go. He just wanted to get as far away from that blanket as he could. Even though he knew he didn't wand Hanabi to have it under any circumstances, he didn't have the dignity to go in there and get it.

He finally recalled that he could make something of his trip. He headed toward the gift shop and bought a small lavender-colored box, a pink ribbon, and a little tag. As he left the store, he considered his timing options and slowed down to think. The faster Sprite was occupied with a new home, the better. She needed attention from someone other than him and Gingerale. With that in mind, he decided that, after an hour, it was safe to go home.

When he came to the stoop of his house, he found to his surprise Sprite and Gingerale at the door. Gingerale was sitting on one side of the opened door and was looked hopelessly at Sprite and Coke, who were on the other side of the door frame. Sprite was in a playful crouch, wriggling her bottom in the air and pleading for her brother to play with her. Coke was laying down in front of her, resting his head on the stone ground between his paws. His ears were back and his almond-shaped eyes were glaring Sprite with a _Yes,-I-see-you,-and-I-wish-you-would-go-away_ look. Sprite looked absolutely desperate for attention from him, but it was obvious that she was not going to get it.

When Neji stepped onto the porch, Gingerale gave him a swift side glance, but that was it. Coke glanced up at him, too, pleading to remove his mother and sister from the area. Neji scooped up Sprite and picked up Gingerale. To his surprise, Sprite crawled up onto his shoulder and hung off it like Gingerale had when she was small. He blinked at her and looked at Gingerale. The cat blinked back at him and looked at Sprite, then at the box, ribbon, and tag that was in Neji's free hand.

He ignored her curious gaze, and walked into his room quickly, keeping his eyes on the wall opposite to Hanabi's room. He placed Gingerale on the bed and closed the door, then looked at the clock on his nightstand. 6:00P.M.

Sprite wobbly stood up on Neji's shoulder and started to bat at his sidebands. Neji looked at her sideways, and absentmindedly gave her the same crooked smile he had given Gingerale when she had done the same thing to the straps on his forehead protector when they first met.

Gingerale must have noticed it, too, because she started to purr loudly. She jumped off the bed and wove between his legs, visibly recalling the similar moment from her own perspective.

With that, Sprite had earned herself another night in the Hyuuga household.

oOOoOOoOOoOOo

When Neji awoke the next morning, it was much earlier than he would have liked it to be. The sun had not yet risen, and the room was filled with purplish-pink light that lit nothing up. He groggily turned to his side. Through the darkness, he could see one large lump of fur. That was was Gingerale, asleep, huddled around Sprite, he was sure. Sprite however, was awake, because from the one ball of fur, a little furry head was sticking out with two glowing green eyes in the center. The kitten blinked, and then carefully crawled away from her mother and head butted Neji's nose.

Neji closed his eyes and head butted her back, the propped himself up to look at the time. It was 3:04 A.M. His eyes drifted to what was slightly behind the clock, to the box, ribbon, and tag. As if on queue, Sprite climbed onto his chest and looked at the clock curiously, then followed his gaze to the box. Neji looked at her for a moment, and then at Gingerale, who was still asleep. He prodded her with his elbow, and she sleepily lifted her head to look at him as she stretched her front legs.

"I need you to do me a favor," Neji said to her, almost in a whisper.

Gingerale got up slowly and looked at him. It was clear that she was listening. It was also clear that she was rather annoyed with being woken up so early.

"I want to you check to see if anyone is in the Haruno household. Sakura's house," he added when she seemed to not understand 'Haruno household.' "Do you understand me?"

Gingerale nodded slowly. She sat down on the bed and her ear twitched as she cocked her head. _"Why?"_

"Sprite needs to leave. And I don't want to put her in a box on a stoop for hours when everyone is asleep.

Gingerale nodded again, her eyes becoming a little more serious. She cocked her head again and pointed to herself with her tail tip. _"Why me?" _

"You're silent, quick, and only about six inches at the shoulder, which means you could travel there and back easier than I could without being seen. I know you know the way. All you need to do is look for lights. Can you handle that?" Neji asked, feeling a lot like a team leader at this point. He surprised himself with how much faith he put into his cat.

Gingerale's did a full-body shake and stood up tall. She was now in mission mode. Neji had no doubt she would not fail this one. He sat up, holding Sprite in one hand and slid his feet off the bed. He leaned over to the window and pushed it open. Cool air drifted through the window, making him shiver a little. Gingerale gracefully walked across the bed, onto the nightstand, and bounced out the window.

Neji watched until she disappeared with Sprite still in his hand. When she was gone he shut the window and picked up the tag to the box. He then picked up a piece of paper and a pen, sat at his computer desk, pushed the wireless keyboard out of the way, and started to brainstorm. He placed Sprite next to him. The kitten started to paw at the pen as he wrote, making Neji's handwriting worse than it naturally was.

If there was one thing that the Hyuuga prodigy could not do, it was write any type of letter. He could write reports for missions, but there was something about letters that he could not master. Besides his handwriting being terrible, he could not think of what to say. He wanted to mean something and to not sound like he just threw a kitten in a box and set it on a stoop. He also needed whatever he was going to say to fit on the little beige tag. It was all too frustrating to do at 3:05 in the morning. But he finally did. Once he had what he was going to write on the scrap paper, he set to work copying it onto the tag in his best handwriting.

As he was finishing he heard a soft scraping sound and a familiar meow. Gingerale was at the outside of the closed window, waiting to be let in. Neji took another moment to finish off the tag, and then he opened the window. Gingerale bounded through, landing on the nightstand clumsily and jumping to the floor. She shook some of the cold dew off her moist pelt and whiskered, then shivered and crawled under one of Neji's dirty shirts that was on the ground.

Neji closed the door, walked over to her and picked her up, ruffling her fur to warm her up a littler. "Well?"

Gingerale paused, and then lifted her head and nodded.

"Excellent," he said. Sprite came over and meowing at his feet. He looked at the time. It was almost 4:00.

Putting Gingerale on the bed, he picked up Sprit and put her in the lavender box. He quickly put the top on and tied the ribbon around it. Then he fastened the tag to one end of the ribbon. The ribbon was way too long for the box so he decided to untie it and cut it. He wrapped the cut-off end around Sprite's neck, making a small bow on the back of her neck. Though the kitten was not happy when she got it put on, she didn't fiddle with it much once it was on. He then put her back in the box, got dressed quickly, and shuck out of the house with Gingerale on his shoulders and the box with Sprite in it in his hands.

oOOoOOoOOoOOo

Sakura had just finished her breakfast and was at the sink washing dishes. As she finished the last dish, there was a knock at the door. She quickly dried her hands wand went to answer it.

She opened the door and looked around, but saw nothing. There was a sound close to the ground and she looked down to see a lavender box tied together with a pink bow. On the bow was a small beige tag. The box was almost bouncing around. Puzzled, she picked it up and read the tag.

_Sakura,_

_You never let me answer your question. Work on waiting for answers. But I saw you ask again silently. This might not be the one you were expecting, but here's your kitten. Her name is Sprite. Change it if you want._

_Neji_

Sakura's eyes widened. She looked around and then pulled the bow on the box. It unraveled and fell the the sides, draping her hands and waving in the wind a little. As soon as they were gone the box top flew off and a fluffy calico kitten popped her head out.

The two stared at each other, emerald eyes into emerald eyes. Sakura finally blinked and murmured, "Sprite." And in response the kitten mewed and climbed out of the box, up to her shoulder, and pushed her cheek into Sakura's.

Sakura smiled and stroked her head, and then walked back into her house and closed the door.

And with that, Neji and Gingerale free souls once again.

**----------**

I know at this point, this is starting to sound like a NejiSaku... But I assure you, it will turn into a Nejiten. I promise. You can hunt my down and kill me if it does not.

This story is ending very VERY soon. Like, we got 4 chapters tops before it's over. It'll have a good ending. I promise! 

**Question? Comments? Concerns? Leave a review! The more I have, the faster I'll write! I need to know I have fans! THEY'RE MY ONLY MOTIVATION!!!**


	16. Mountain Dew Cream's Strength

The wind blew, and the lone cloud drifted a little to the south. Her ears went back and she looked down again, her eyes narrowing with regret. Gingerale pranced around the room, as if she were amazed at how roomy it seemed. Her head and tail held high, there was a spring in her step, clearly from the delight of it all. 

Neji sat on his bed watching her. A month and a half had passed since Sprite had left and Gingerale had done this almost every morning since. He couldn't help but smile a bit. Kittens had done nothing to change the cat's cheery disposition.

He got up and filled the food and water bowl. Then he went into his bathroom to brush his teeth and hair.

It wasn't long before Gingerale was in there with him, weaving between his legs. "Mreeeeooow!  
she said. "Let's go somewhere!"

Neji obliged. He finished brushing his hair, got dressed, and headed for the door. Of course, Gingerale was with him, but she was walking beside him instead of sitting on his shoulders.

Coke was quietly snoring on the ground right next to the stoop, his brown pelt warm with the late spring sun. When Neji saw him he bunted the kitten with his foot. He knew that if he didn't wake up the guard, Hiashi would. And that would hurt... even though he had taken a visible liking to Coke.

Disturbed from his comfortable slumber, Coke was rolled onto his back. His eyes popped open and his ears twitched. He looked up at Neji, his eyes slanted in irritation, and then slowly got up, stretched, and climbed onto the porch and sat sphinx-style, his amber eyes dazed and unfocused from tiredness.

"Well," Neji sighed, looking down at Gingerale, "where do you plan to go? You seem to have someplace in mind."

She looked thoughtful, her emerald eyes darting left and right as she thought. She finally trotted in front of him and started to lead. Neji obediently followed.

To his puzzlement, she led him to a spot not too far outside the gate, but far enough away that it was easily unnoticed. There was a mound of turned-over dirt where little grass had regrown there. He stared at it, trying to remember its significance. After a short pause, the vision of Gingerale laying on his pillow with four bundles of fur at her belly came to mind. Four. Not three. The fourth! The stillborn kitten! The grave! Now he remembered.

Gingerale was sitting next to the mound of dirt, her eyes fixed on Neji in patient waiting. He looked into her face and he remembered, for once unable to read the question she was trying to ask. He knew she had one. She always did when she did things like this. But he had seen this question before. He just had to remember where...

The three tiny balls of fluff tumbled together, playing their clumsy little game. They were only a few weeks old, and had just woken up from a nap a few minutes ago.

Gingerale sat a little ways off from them, watching them lazily. Neji sat across from her on the other side of the kittens, so that they were between them.

Neji watched them with silent amusement. "...They need names," he murmured, before his mind could comprehend what he had actually said.

Gingerale slowly looked up at him. The question was silently being asked. Neji stared back at her, unable to read her. She patiently saw there, pushing her question upon him. It finally clicked, and his gaze dropped back to the kittens.

"I don't know what genders they are," Neji pointed out, looking for any sign of gender at all.

Gingerale rolled her eyes and sighed. She padded into the middle of her wrestling brood and picked up the brown kitten, who was the biggest. It squirmed and and wailed in protest, but she ignored it and set it down in Neji's lap. She pointed to the kitten, and then to him with her tail.

"This is the male?"

Gingerale nodded.

"The only one?" He looked at the other two, who were still playing together

Again, Gingerale nodded.

Neji's attention turned back to the kitten in his lap. The kitten looked at him with big gray-blue eyes. He reached down to pick it up. To his surprise, the kitten reached an unsheathed paw up at him and smacked his hand with it. Neji's hand recoiled and he stared at the kitten for a moment. "Coke," he said at last. "Coca-cola." He had thought through that one. Everyone would think that he got his name from his coloring. But it was actually because he didn't like coke.

Gingerale's tail swished, and she purred. She rubbed the length of her body against Neji's arm, and then picked up Coke and brought back the calico kitten.

As soon as she was placed in his lap she started to purr. She rolled onto her back and rolled around, blinking up at Neji with big eyes. Her eyes were huge in proportion to her body, and she was absolutely adorable.

Neji smiled crookedly at her and ran his finger along her soft belly. She purred louder, to the point that her little rumble could be heard through the whole room. She had a very bubbly purr, and now Now Neji realized that she was the smallest of the kittens. "Sprite," he said surely, convinced that the name fit the kitten perfectly.

Gingerale's tail swished again. She picked up Sprite and switched her for the last kitten, the ginger kitten. Neji scratched her under her chin. She had a deep rumbled purr. "Cream Soda?" The named seemed to not fit, and he wanted to change it.

But Gingerale did not. She gurgled blissfully and picked Cream up. She put her down and crawled into Neji's lap. He stoked her silky ginger spot on her back, and she purred loudly.

Now he knew what Gingerale wanted. "You want a name for that one."

She nodded.

"Alright," he said slowly. He tried to remember what the kitten looked like. Very light ginger. Almost cream-colored. "Mountain Dew," he said a last. "...Dew. How's that?"

Gingerale let out a "mrrow" of delight. Her tail swished as it had done when he had named the other kittens, signifying the moment.

Neji smiled and nodded. "Good." He looked at the grave and tried to picture what the kitten would look like if it had lived. He imagined a long slim cat with a flume of a tail that was very fluffy in proportion to its body. The idea ended up a mirror image of Cream Soda except lighter in color, and he disregarded it and stood up. "Okay. Are you satisfied now?"

The cat looked up at him expectantly.

"Good. Come on then." He didn't give her a chance to get onto his shoulders because as soon as he was up, he was moving. But even so, Gingerale still ended up leading.

As she left the Hyuuga estate, she spun around to face Neji with an excited glint in her eyes. "Meow mroop!" she said. Then she turned around and dashed away. From that, he concluded that he wanted to race, and he jogged after her to give her the impression that she was winning.

She was running toward a training area. He hastily sped up with her until he was next to her. She looked at him competitively, and to his surprise she stretched herself out to that her tail was strait out behind her, flattened her ears on her head, narrowed her eyes, and lowered herself to the ground. She sped up until she was far pass him, only to skid to a clumsy halt when she came upon the training area.

It took Neji a moment to cat up because he hadn't sped up to match her. He stopped next to the cat and peered into the area, where he now realized someone was in. A kunai suddenly flew pass his face. A moment later an orange streak flew by his feet. He looked up to follow it, but before he verified that it was what he thought it was, a familiar voice confirmed what his eyes did not.

"Good fob, Cream Soda! Bring it back and this time I'll surprise you!"

He cocked his head toward the voice. On the other side of the training area was TenTen,with her hands on her hips. She looked at him. "Hey!" she said with a friendly grin.

He walked out, but jumped back again as Cream darted in front of him, carrying TenTen's heavy kunai. She came to a canter, and then slowly to a halt in front of her. She sad down, her bad leg sticking out as it always had. Her head was tilted with the weight of the kunai in her mouth, and as TenTen took it from her she straitened her head.

Neji and Gingerale walked into the area again. They both gazed at Cream for a moment in silence. Or, at least her back. "She didn't get very big," Neji finally said. Gingerale gurgled in agreement.

Cream, who had intently been waiting for TenTen to throw the kunai again, turned at the sound of her mother's voice. With an excited "mrrow," she spun around and galloped up to her and pushed her muzzle into Gingerale's cheek.

"She's only... what? Six months old? She'll get bigger," said TenTen, looking at the two cats. But Cream was small. She only came up to Gingerale's shoulder at the tip of her ear, and Gingerale was a small cat. Coke was almost the same height as his mother already. There was a huge size difference.

After a few months, Cream had already been the smallest of the kittens. Sakura once said it was because of her injury. It was the body's ways of trying to fix something unfixable: take more energy from other things, like growing, and transfer them into mending the bone. The truth was that she wasn't likely to get much bigger. But TenTen could believe whatever she wanted. And it was clear that she wanted to believe that Cream was going to be a big cat.

"...So you gave the other kitten to Sakura, right?" TenTen asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah." His mind was shocked back to reality far before his body seemed to be. He turned to face her. "Have you seen them around?"

She shook her head, walked up to the cats, and picked up Cream. "No. But Gingerale and her kittens are the only cats that anyone talks about. When word got out about Sakura and a kitten, I just took a guess."

"Oh," Neji mumbled. Gingerale let out a purr of delight. "I didn't know that... It was never something I took note of."

"Really!?" TenTen looked amused/ Cream squirmed in her arms, and she put her down. The cat looked at her impatiently and meowed. TenTen looked at the kunai in her hand, and then at Neji and Gingerale. She grinned. "I got and idea," she said. "Why don't Gingerale and Cream Soda race?"

Neji raised a brow. "Alright," he said.

Gingerale purred and pranced to Cream's side.

TenTen's grin widened. She paused, and then pulled her arm back and threw the kunai. As soon as it left her hand the two cats bolted forward. Gingerale was, to no one's surprise ahead from the start. Cream was about two feet behind her. Neji watched with interest as Cream ran. She had her won little technique. Her bad leg just seemed to dangle from her side, until you took a closer look at it. For Neji, it was easy. As she ran, she threw the leg forward, which, in turn, three she whole back end forward and gave her momentum.

None the less, Gingerale quickly lengthened the space between them. She ran until the ginger spot on her back was even with the kunai, and then waited for it to drop into her range. She lunged at it and just barely caught it around the whole. She fell to the ground, hopelessly thrown off balance. The kunai wrung from her mouth as she stumbled, and as Cream aught up, the point almost hit her in the head. She dodged it and slowly came to a halt, and then walked back to her mother and sat down with a defeated look burned into her face. Gingerale finally caught herself, and dropped the kunai.

TenTen laughed. "Aww, Gingerale can't pick up my little toy!" she joked.

Gingerale's ears went back and she lowered her head shamefully. Neji was quick to jump to her defense. "So you're saying that Cream Soda can? It's a heavy weapon for a cat."

TenTen made a face. He knew that face. It was her 'Is that a challenge?' face. She put two fingers to her lips and blew, creating a sharp whistle sound that was so loud Neji feared his ear drums would bleed.

Cream cocked to attention at the sound. She got to her paws, picked up the kunai with little effort, and sprinted to Tenet's feet to give it to her. The only sign of weight from the kunai was the slight tilt of her head.

TenTen picked up the kunai and then kitten, and turned to Neji. "Don't even ask. She can catch better than Gingerale, too."

Neji didn't know whether to be amused or irritated. Gingerale was at his side already, so he simply picked her up and walked away. He knew that if he let his teammate bask in her victory for too long, she would find some other ways to show superiority that he couldn't get around.

Gingerale gurgled and climbed onto his shoulder as they went out of sight of the training ground. Neji watched her, trying to read her mood. "You hate that Cream beat you, don't you?" he asked at last.

She looked at him. Her green eyes met his, and he could see that they were clouded with rhetorical questions, questions completely out of both his and her power. None the less, se twitched her ear, which was a no, and she looked away. She started to look around at the stores and people as they entered the main part of town.

Suddenly there was a plume of smoke, and a jounin appeared in front to him. "Neji Hyuuga?" he confirmed.

Neji nodded. Gingerale cocked her had and his Neji's cheek with her tail, demanding him to introduce her, but he pretended he hadn't noticed.

"Hokage-sama would like to see you in her office."

Neji nodded again and said "Thank you."

The jounin nodded, pet Gingerale's head and then disappeared.

"This might be a solitary mission. If it weren't I would have either been told to inform someone else, or have been informed by a teammate," Neji told Gingerale as he headed for the hokage's palace. "This might be my first mission as a jounin alone."

"Mroop, mroop!" Gingerale replied. She was as excited as he was.

He smiled a little and pet her head, and she purred.

She looked at the palace looming in front of them, and then up. She stared at the clear blue sky, dotted with a single cloud; her ears were perked and her eyes were wide, as if she were paying very close attention to something that only she could listen to. Maybe she was even asking questions. Neji saw it all, and he knew after a moment that she could sense his puzzlement, But she only looked at him, licked his cheek, and looked forward again.

At the point, he knew that something was very wronged.

Because that alone, was peculiar.

**-----------------------------**

**The next chapter is probably gonna be the second to last chapter, not counting an extra chapter of A/N.**

. . . . . There was something that I wanted to say, and I can't remember it anymore...

. . . .

I guess I'll just ramble.

WOO! The little kitten got a name:3 MD XD what the hell was I thinking...

I think that the flashback was a good thing. I myself was thinking about that scene when I decided to skip ahead. I really like it.

This is when most of the fun fades from the story. We're coming to that "Jumping the Shark" moment, but it won't be what you think it will. The ending of this story might surprise you.

The more comments I get, the faster I write! 


	17. The End

A fugitive?" Neji repeated. He now stood in the Hokage's office with Gingerale on his shoulders.

Tsunade nodded. "From the Hidden Stone Village. His name is Samashi. Here is his picture." She held up a picture of a man in dark brown clothes with bushy dark blond hair and a thin beard. "He was last seen near the boundary of the Fire country heading our way."

Gingerale girgled in interest and cocked her head. Her tail swished curiously.

Tsunade glanced at her before concluding, "He is wanted dead or alive, so you don't have to bring him back in one piece. All you need to do is immobilize him and bring him here. I will take care of the rest."

Before Neji could reply, Gingerale jumped onto the desk. She looked closely at the picture for a long moment, and her eyes narrowed. Her tail lashed in anticipation.

Tsunade looked at her blankly. "Uh... yes, you can take your kitty with you if you want..."

Neji picked the cat up quickly, embarrassed. "When do I leave, Hokage-Sama?" he asked.

"You leave this evening."

He bowed, and, to his satisfaction Gingerale dipped her head respectfully as well. He took the picture when it was handed to him and left the office, his mind on the mission.

oOOoOOoOOoOOo

An hour before sunset, Neji was off, with Gingerale trotting briskly behind him. They were heading for the edge of the Fire Country.

By the time the moon was high into the sky, they set up camp, but before he went to sleep, Neji had drawn up a plan for the next day.

They woke shortly after dawn, and had a quick breakfast of rice balls before starting off again.

By noon, they were close to their destination, and it was not long before Gingerale seemed to have caught a scent. Neji followed her for a few minutes before activating his byakugan. His vision turned to shades of black, white, and gray, and the trees were intangible. About forty yards away there was a chakra field of a man. There was no mistaking it. It was Samashi.

Neji quickly picked up Gingerale and leapt into the trees toward him, keeping his byakugan activated. When he was close enough, he took out a kunai and threw it. It struck deep into the man's shoulder. Samashi fell to his knees, clutching his bleeding shoulder where the kunai was protruding. He was looking around frantically, but had not spotted Neji. That meant that he still had the element of surprise.

Thinking fast, he moved to the opposite direction at which he had thrown the kunai. He placed Gingerale on the branch he was on and motioned for her to stay before he jumped to the ground.

Samashi looked up at him, frustration burning in his eyes. He mumbled something to himself and pulled the kunai out of his shoulder, grimacing as it came out. Blood seeped into his brown clothing, quickly blotting and covering his whole shoulder.

"Samashi," Neji said evenly, going into a gentle fist pose, "you need to come with me."

Samashi sneered. "Forget it, kid," he growled. "I ain't goin' nowhere."

Expecting as much, Neji ran forward, chakra glowing from his fingertips. He aimed for his opponent's shoulder and tried to thrust his fingertips into it, only to have his attack hit Samashi's hand instead in a skillful block. His other hand flew up and he tried to his him in the chest, but his attack was again countered with his other arm. _"He's fast," _he thought, jumping back. _"If I'm going to hit him, I have to keep his arms distracted so that he can't block me." _He quickly pulled out two kunais and threw them, running forward once again.

Samashi saw what he was doing almost at once. He caught one kunai and dodged the other, then threw the one he had caught toward Neji. Without waiting for a result, he did a back flip, lengthening the space between him and his opponent.

Surprised, Neji skidded to a halt and bent over backwards to evade the flying kunai at the last minute. He suddenly realized that Samashi was up against the tree that Gingerale had been left in. He looked into the branches, and to no surprise at all, she was crouched at the base of the branch, her eyes narrowed at Samashi. She was ready to pounce.

He could not stop her without giving her away and putting her in danger, so he did not try. Instead he turned his attention back to his opponent, who hadn't moved. Keeping his speed, he thrust his palm toward Samashi's chest. This time it was a direct hit, and the man doubled over, blood squirting out of his throat.

Neji jumped back several feet and watched his handiwork. Samashi fell the the ground, coughing up blood and gasping for air. Then, very shakily, he got to his feet and pulled out a long dagger. It looked lighter than a kunai, but it was much bigger and it looked strong. He pulled his arm back, ready to throw it, when all of a sudden Gingerale launched herself at his head with a furious hiss.

Caught off gaurd, Samashi let out a surprised yelp as the cat landed on his head and sunk her claws into his scalp, trying to bite his forehead. He tried to shake her off, and she slid sideways, clawing at his head for a better grip on her hind legs. They both finally fell to the ground, Samashi landing flat on his face. Gingerale jumped off as he hit the ground and stared at his limp form, her tail swishing slowly close to the ground.

It all got quiet. Samashi hadn't moved, his face half covered in blood and his breathing was slowly and steadily coming to a halt. Gingerale hadn't moved. She stood there, gazing at the man with a blank expression. Neji paused a moment longer, and then slowly started to walk forward.

Suddenly Gingerale stiffened, and the fur on her shoulders stood up on end. Her head swung toward Neji, her eyes wide with fear and hurry. She sprinted forward at a speed he had never seen her run before, until she was behind him.

Then it all happened at once. A familiar sound slid through the air, quickly getting closer; it was the sound of a weapon flying through the air. Then there was Samashi's form. With an unsteady cough, he poofed into a squirrel, its tail twitching as its life came to an end. A substitution jutsu. Then Gingerale skidding to a halt and leaping into the air behind him, her hop like a scared rabbit, and he felt her head and the back of his neck meet.

At that moment, Neji knew that he had let his guard down.

Time seemed to be moving without him as he spun around, just in time to see Samashi's dagger meet him, its speed incredible. It was so close that he could not have had time to blink before it was upon him. But what he had somehow canceled out from the scene was Gingerale, still in mid-jump. She seemed to be falling at an eerily slow pace, and Neji could do absolutely nothing but watched as the dagger pierced her chest.

Suddenly he was back, moving with the flow of time. A horrible, pained screech shook him from the inside out. Blood splashed his face as Gingerale fell to the ground, Samashi's dagger sticking through her body and poking through the other side. She landed in an unmoving heap, blood quickly matting her fur around both her muzzle and the wound.

"No..." Neji murmured, his throat dry and tight with shock. "No..."

"Damn cat!" Samashi hissed, staring at the limp body in disgust.

Neji slowly looked up, his horror and pain fueling pure hatred and a need for revenge. Feeling new strength, he dashed forward so quickly that he became little more than a blur. As he stopped, the man looked like he had gone blind from confusion. With all the strength he had, Neji thrust his chakra-filled palm into his opponent's chest. The sound of his ribs snapping like twigs was like a pleasurable song, and the chakra shot right through Samashi, coming out his back like a dagger. A moment later he rocketed backwards, slamming into a tree that dented under the pressure. This time, Samashi was really dead.

Neji quickly turned his attention back to Gingerale. When he walked back over to her, he was immediately aware that there was nothing he could do for her. She lay where she had fallen, the dagger still protruding from her side. One of her front legs was under her; she was wobbling a little on it, trying to get herself up. She took in a shaky breath, and coughed up blood, causing her to collapse to the ground again.

He picked her up and pulled the dagger out of her side. She gave off a little squeak, but that was it. Then she blinked and looked up at him, and to his shock the only emotion in her eyes was content.

"How? Why? Why choose my life over yours?" he whispered, staring back at her with eyes that couldn't register her expression.

The cat seemed to smile up at him. Her eyes shone with practical reasoning.

He stared deep into them, trying to find her answer. He couldn't. But he could find something else. "...You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?"

Gingerale looked at him, and her green eyes picked up a hint of amusement. She nodded weakly.

"In the sky...Did you read it in the clouds?" Even saying it sounded odd and unbelievable. But it was the only excuse Neji could come up with.

She looked at him for a long moment and her eyes slid shut. She stayed like that for so long that he feared that he had already lost her. Then her eyes opened half-way and she shook her head weakly.

And then there was silence; Neji and Gingerale stared at each other. She just looked at him in complete calm. There was no fear, or pain, or upset, or regret in her face, just a farewell.

A hard lump was forming in Neji's throat, and he swallowed hard. "Why aren't you scared?" he asked."Doesn't death scare you?"

She continued to look at him, and then took in a shaky breath. Her green eyes faded, and her head lolled to one side, limp and lifeless.

Neji stared at her limp form, feeling the heat slowly leave her body. The feeling of dread pushed him to his knees and he buried his face in her fur. Her whole life flashed before his eyes: from the moment she had crawled onto his shoulder, to now, and everything in between. Everything she had ever done seemed to be coming down on his shoulders, and he could not hold it all.

A single tear slid down his cheek and into her fur. "So many questions unanswered," he murmured. "And you left them all on me." He lifted his head and looked around. Everything around him was dead. And eerie silence was creeping up on him and choking his sanity, making him panic.

Neji suddenly realized that he was now very alone.

**---------**

**IT'S NOT THE END!!!**

**p.s.- If you didn't cry, you're such a heartless person..  
p.p.s.- Er, okay, you're not. You're just hardcore :3  
p.p.p.s.- I am SOOO sorry that this took so long to come out. There were... eh... complications  
****p.p.p.p.s.- REVIEW!**


	18. A Guardian

Two days later, when Neji had gotten back to the village and had left the Hokage's office, he was on his way from the tool shed to the outside of the Hyuuga compound. In his left hand was a small sack. Gingerale's body lay inside.

It had been obvious to everyone who had tried to talk to him that something was very wrong. He figured that most of them had guessed, because he had not uttered a word since he had left Tsunade's office.

Lee was the only person who had tried to speak to him. "...Is Gingerale okay?" he had asked after an unsuccessful attempt at conversation. Neji had just shaken his head and walked around him, and that was it.

Now walking back home from the tool shed, he was met with a panicked Coke halfway to the house. Amber eyes wide, he circled Neji three times, looked him up and down, and then threw his head back and yowled dismally.

"Shh," Neji said quickly, picking up the kitten and trying to sooth him before he made a scene.

He looked up a minute later and saw Hiashi at the front door. The man looked around quickly, and then at Neji, visibly noting Coke's out-of-character moment.

"It was a false alarm, Uncle," Neji said, just loud enough to be heard.

Hiashi stared at him for a long moment. He seemed to be analyzing the situation, because his face grew the slightest bit solemn. He nodded, turned around, and started to walk toward the house. "If you want, you can keep the cat in your room tonight. He seems to want to be around you," he said as he disappeared.

Neji stared after him blankly, and then looked down at Coke, suddenly realizing that the kitten's claws were embedded in his shirt. As he stared down at him, Coke mewed quietly. He sounded like a lost baby, calling out for his mother. Neji stroked his head and trudged into his house. But as he reached to open the door, he stopped, suddenly realizing the empty part of him that he needed back. He went in and placed the kitten on the bed, before leaving the room again.

oOPoVOo

Hinata finished making her bed, a satisfied smile on her face. Looking around at her now fully-cleaned room, she looked toward her waiting computer, which lay asleep. As she watched there was a blink and the screen turned on. She had left her IM on with an away message up, and TenTen had just IM'd her. She started toward the computer, when she heard a knock at the door. A moment later is creaked open, revealing Neji.

His dirty, slightly bloodied clothes revealed that he had just come back from his mission, but that was not what concerned her. His head was low, and his messy hair hung carelessly over his face, hiding it from her. He looked run down in more ways than one. When she looked over his shoulder from where he stood, into his room, she saw the brown kitten sitting on his bed, peering at her. She was surprised to see how sad he looked.

Neji cleared his throat roughly, bringing her attention back to him. "Hinata..." he started, but trailed off. His voice was dry and hoarse.

When he said nothing more, she slowly said, "Y-yes, Neji-nii-san?"

There was a long pause, before he looked up. The look in his eyes made her want to break down crying. But she didn't. "Do you... do you have... my blanket?" he said hoarsly.

Surprised, she just stared at him. "What blanket?"

He rubbed the back of his neck and his gaze dropped again. "...Little Blue."

"Oh!" she gasped, surprised. Turning on her heal, she quickly went to her closet, and, reaching into the corner where the blankets were kept, she pulled out the little blue blanket. She crossed the room again and gave it to him.

He snatched it and held it to his chest in the same fashion he had when he was a child. "Uh... thanks," he mumbled, turning around and disappearing into his room. The door shut behind him, and Hinata was left staring at his closed door, baffled.

The IM window sounded again; TenTen was still waiting for her. She quickly turned to it and sat down, her hands shaking a little with adrenaline.

**HYuGaLuV21: **tenten, the weirdest thing just happened... but, nvm I shouldn't say...

oOPoVOo

With Little Blue in his hand, Neji lay on his bed. Coke dove out of his way as he landed, and as he settled down, the kitten curled up on his chest.

Neji's dreams did not come. He was asleep, but he could feel himself laying there, as if he were awake and just waiting to go to sleep. But he could not sense Coke, and that made him feel very alone. He started to pull his soul out of his body. But it was stuck, and it was stuck very tightly. He pried and pried with all his might... until finally, he was free. His soul flew out of his body, and he was thrown somewhere. He had no idea where or how far.

But then he found himself in a place that was nothing but white; no walls, no corners, no end. Nothing but brightness and white. He looked around, the loneliness somehow gone, now replaced with a cautious curiosity. He lost all sense of being, age, pride. "Hello...?" he called into the nothingness. His voice echoed like the ring of a bell, until it was gone. He looked around again. Nothing had changed.

"Well, well, well... Hello, Neji!" an unfamiliar voice rang back after a long pause.

He spun around, trying to find the source of the mysterious voice. He could see no one.

From the light, a figure started toward him at a seemingly slow pace. He looked toward it, stiffening, but not the least bit afraid, suddenly realizing that it was impossible to feel such a way here.

The figure was quickly much closer, and it took on the shape of a cat. Closer and closer it came, and colors started to appear, too. Two bright, vibrant emerald-green eyes, and several ginger spots. It clicked, and as it did, Gingerale came to a stop in front of Neji, staring up at him with an unearthly blissful expression.

Shocked, he dropped to his knees, rubbing her head and caressing her cheek with his thumb. "Gingerale... you..." he stuttered, but his words wouldn't form as he stared at her perfect face, and her eyes, which were now brighter than he had ever seen them.

"Neji Hyuuga! What are you doing? You're going to scare people if you don't get back into your body, you dieing fool!" Gingerale said scornfully, cocking her head to one side.

Surprised, he jumped back, but did not move far. He stared at the cat, a question in his eyes.

Gingerale giggled. Her voice was soft and sweet, very feminine and gentle. "Surprised? I thought you would have guessed, being the genius that you are." She paused, and watch Neji's nose crinkled at her insult. Then she went on, "Well, here's a hint: I'm a LOT older than you know me as."

He thought hard, seeing at she was not joking. "You're a spirit...?" he replied stupidly, thinking little of his answer.

An amused and impatient look flashed across her face and she laughed, "No dip!" After a moment, her smile faded and was replaced with a troubled frown. "Little Coka-Cola is gonna have a heart attack, and I'm probably going to have a stern talking to, but I might as well explain, seeing as you're not in any immediate danger..." she sighed, sitting down and wrapping her tail around her front paws. "You are right, I am a spirit. But I am a very old one. I've lived and died countless times, each and every one having a moral ending.. in one form or another. I was always born for a reason, and I always died for a reason.

Her words mezmorized him and he took them in like candy. "Well then... what was your reason this time?" he asked.

Gingerale's smile returned. "Well, Neji, we can sum it up to this: You're a reckless bonehead!"

He frowned, making no effort to hide his offense and confusion.

The cat threw back her head and laughed. "Alright, fine. Let me explain..." She sighed contently, her laughter fading. "Usually when _I_ am called to Earth, it is to be a guardian. And when I am needed for such a job, I'm a last resort. You see, dear, most people trust their guardians enough subconsciously to let them watch over without actually having them physically there. You, in all your past lived, lacked that sense, and never made it pass your 18th birthday. And after your episode with that sound nin, most of us up above were pretty convinced that you were a lost cause. But... we decided to give you one last chance, and I was born."

He stared at her in disbelief, not able to comprehend what she was saying. "You... you were just here because-"

"Because you were too blind to see me," she finished, giggling. "Isn't that ironic!"

"Uh... Gingerale... Why did I die so young in my past lives?" he asked hesitantly, not sure if he wanted to know.

She looked thoughtful. "Hmm... most of the time... you were just a curious little girl. You'd drown in a pond... or just wander into the wrong situation... However, in one life you died in a fire rescuing your friend's little sister... That was when you were 13." She giggled, continuing to look thoughtful. "It just makes me laugh at how masculine you are this time, because you were such an adorable little girl in most of your past lives!"

Somehow, Neji found that easy to understand. "Were you with me in any of my past lives?"

She nodded. "I was your best friend in one. You only lived to be five." She suddenly started to transform, her shape changing into a little girl in a white robe with bone-strait black hair that stopped a little above her shoulders. She had dark blue eyes and light skin. "My name was Tillia, but you always called me Black. You thought my hair was the coolest thing in the world!" She smiled sweetly at him, twirling one finger through her hair. "But I've been almost everything. I've been cats, dogs, wolves... even a tiger once." She transformed into a tiger cub and hopped into his lap. "Aren't I adorable?" she giggled, pushing her fluffy cheek into his hand.

Neji nodded a little and said, "So... the only reason you were born was to protect me?"

"Well... no..." she said slowly, rolling off his lap and turning back into Tillia. "I can have a life, too. And I've taught you some stuff..."

"...You've taught me how to take care of kittens," he replied hesitantly.

She made a face, and sat up and smacked him across the face lightly. "No, stupid! I've taught you a lot more than that! Think of it this way: Without me, would you ever have the dignity to go to Hinata and ask for Little Blue back?"

He stared at her blankly, and for a moment he wondered how she knew that. He shook his head.

With a triumphant smile, Tillia rolled onto her back again. "Exactly. And you've become more sensitive. Everybody notices it, though they might not show it." She waited for him to respond, but when he didn't, she went on: " Life is too short to not take the right kind of chances. You're a courageous person, Neji. And you have potential. You could change the world and make a lot of people happy if you live long enough. Don't kill yourself, okay?"

Her words hit him hard. He nodded again, looking at the ground. He slowly looked up again and opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when he saw Tillia's strange look. It was a mixture of delight, surprise, and annoyance, and it gave him a feeling of excitement that was fueled by the sound in her voice when she said, "Someone wants to see you, Neji." She sat up and transformed into a woman with hair the color of his down to her mid-back and big hazel eyes. She had darker skin than Tillia, but resembled her much in the face, except older. She stood as the transformation ended, and offered Neji her hand.

He took it and was pulled to his feet. Both he and Gingerale's new form watched as a man whom he hadn't seen in a decade walked toward him from the light, his smile wide yet calm.

"Father!" Neji yelled, and, losing all sense of dignity, ran up to him and wrapped his arms around his neck in a warm embrace. He said nothing as he stood there hugging him closely, his mind taking him back to the last time he had been able to do this.

"Hello, Neji!" his father laughed wholeheartedly, hugging him close. "You've gotten so big!"

"Hizashi, what are you doing here?" Gingerale asked sternly, coming to the man's side. She was still in the form of the brown-haired woman.

Hizashi looked up apologetically at the angel, unable to hide his happiness. "I'm sorry, Sasha. Since he was here, I thought that I might as well take the opportunity to say hello."

"Oh... forget it," she said with a smile. "You probably won't get another chance to do this until he's dead anyway."

"Which better not happen for a long time!" he added, looking at Neji- who was still clutching him around the neck- and stroking his head.

Neji nodded absentmindedly, barely comprehending what was being told to him. His father pulled him away and he reluctantly let go, looking up at him with a smile and bringing himself back to the present time.

Gingerale sighed contently and said after a moment, "Alright, Neji. We have to go."

He looked up with a frown. "Father just got here. Can I stay for a little while longer?"

She shook her head, becoming serious now. "You've been here too long, and you've been told too much. You were never supposed to be here at all! You need to go."

"...She's right, Neji," Hizashi admitted reluctantly, much to Gingerale's pleasure. "You shouldn't be here. Go."

Neji stared at him disbelievingly for a long moment, willing him to tell him to go again. But his father's look finally made him look away, and his gaze turned back to Gingerale. "If I-"

"Don't make me have to chase you," Gingerale warned, transforming into a large wolf.

He frowned deeper, and then slowly turned around and started to walk away, not sure what to do next. He finally realized that he didn't know, and let his legs lead him. As he walked, he could sense Gingerale and his father walking away in the opposite direction, and he could hear them quietly talking. Then suddenly they were gone, both their voices and their presences. A moment later he was sent downward, and the light quickly faded to black. His eyes flew open, and as his vision cleared he realized that there were two pairs of eyes on him. He looked sideways first. Coke was standing next to his cheek, his eyes wide with confusion and fear. He looked forward again, and to his puzzlement Hinata was sitting on his chest, giving him the same look.

"N-Neji-nii-san!" she gasped, climbing off of him and kneeling on his bed. She looked shaken. "Y-Y-You're alive!" She was panting slightly, and her face looked tired and pale. She pushed a lock of hair out of her face. Her eyes were still wide with shock as she stood there.

As he stared at her silently, waiting for an explanation, Coke crawled onto his chest and curled up into a tight ball with an exasperated sigh. The kitten looked as shaken up and Hinata did; his fur was fluffed and he was panting slightly. His tail tip twitched with uneasiness as he lay there with his eyes half-closed, staring dazedly at the wall in front of him. Neji blinked and put his hand on Coke's back, only to realize that his hand was very pale. He picked it up and examined it carefully, before looking at Hinata again.

"Y-You... When I woke up, it was already late, and you weren't up yet," she began. "You door was closed and the kitten was scratching at the door meowing, s-so I went in... Your heart wasn't b-beating... I started to try to w-wake you up or start your heart again." She paused, and then looked around the room and frowned anxiously. "Where's Gingerale?"

Neji took in a huge breath before stating calmly, "She'd dead."

Hinata gasped, her hands coming to her mouth and her eyes becoming wet almost at once.

He took another huge breath. It seemed hard to breathe. "She saved my life." After a moment and nothing was said, he nodded confirmation, though it clearly was not needed. He picked Coke up and set him down on Little Blue- who had slid to the inside side of the bed in the middle of the night- and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He stood up slowly, realizing that his legs felt weak.

Hinata watched him, her eyes wet and her mind far away. Without a word she left the room, deep in thought.

Coke stared after her and then looked at Neji worriedly, as if trying to decide which person needed him more right now. Finally he leapt off the bed and bounded after Hinata, leaving Neji to himself.

oOOoOOo

After a long shower and a change of clothes, Neji went into the main part of town for breakfast.

As he walked through the streets he saw Sakura walking in his direction. Sprite was trotting behind her carrying a little sack, most likely full of herbs. When the kitten saw him, her eyes widened. She ran between Sakura's legs, dropped the sack, meowed, and ran to meet him.

He knelt to meet her and as the kitten jumped into his arms he stood back up to face Sakura. "Hello," he said calmly as Sprite pressed herself into his cheek.

Sakura smiled, watching Sprite crawl all over him. "It's nice to see you and Gingerale back from your mission," she said. At that moment she did a double take, suddenly realizing that Gingerale was not with him. She looked confused. Sprite meowed quizzically, looking around, too.

"She's not here," he finally replied after a long pause. "She was killed on my mission."

Sakura gasped, her eyes widening. "Neji... I'm sorry..."

Neji shook his head. "There was a purpose..." he mumbled almost inaudibly.

She looked mystified.

He paused, and then said, "She saved my life. She took a dagger to the heart to block an attack."

"...Wow," she murmured. Sprite gurgled contentedly and Neji handed her back to Sakura.

"I've got to go," he said, changing the awkward subject quickly.

"Bye, Neji..." Sakura murmured as he walked around her. Sprite climbed to her shoulder and meowed goodbye.

oOOoOOo

The wind blew gently as Neji sat against a training post, looking out into the empty training field that lay before him. That was where he had gone right after breakfast, and when he had found no one there he had simply sat down to take advantage of the perfect weather.

The wind suddenly picked up speed, blowing into his face, and picking up his hair and making it dance through the wind lightly. He sighed as it stopped, his dream coming back to mind. It all seemed vague and fuzzy now, but he could still remember the range of emotions that accompanied it, and as he tried to remember, they played back through his system like a cycle that he could not stop.

The wind blew again, carrying a familiar sound: a cat's meow. He looked to his right to see Cream Soda galloping toward him. She jumped into hair lap, her expression somewhere between thrilled and quizzical. It made him abandon his thoughts at once and focus on her, and a moment later she asked excitedly, "Meow meow mew mew meow?"

"Cream! Cream Soda!" another familiar voice called. Neji looked up to see TenTen running toward them, looking very tired. As she came up to him, she fell to her knees panting hard. "Cream... why... did you..." She slowly looked up, and when she saw Neji she blinked. "Oh... hey..."

"Did she give you a run all the way from your house?"

She looked at him, a little confused. "Yeah... she did." She crawled to Neji's side. Leaning against the poll with a tired sigh, she said, "I heard about Gingerale..."

"...Who told you?"

"Sakura."

There was a long pause.The wind blew again.

"I'm so sorry, Neji," TenTen murmured, looking at him solemnly. The wind blew. His long bangs covered his face from her, hiding the tiny smile that had formed there. When he said nothing she looked at the ground. "I mean... She meant a lot to you. Everybody knew that. I know if an-"

She didn't get a chance to say anymore, because Neji pushed his lips into hers, silencing her. Then he pulled away slowly, an uncharacteristically warm smile on his face.

TenTen blinked, her cheeks red. "Why...?"

"Life is too short not to take the right kind of chances," he said, stroking Cream's head gently. "I learned that..." He trailed off, deciding it would be better not to tell her. Not yet, anyway.

She watched him silently, still half in shock. "What do you mean?"

His smile widened a little. "Nothing," he said, still looking at Cream. The kitten looked back at him, her eyes happy and knowing with a new glitter in them. He did a double take, and with another subtle serge of delight he realized what Cream was. The two exchanged a silent message, and then Cream climbed into Tenten's lap.

Neji lay his head back on the pole and closed his eyes, the smile still there. He could feel Tenten's eyes on him, which made him smile even more.

And after a short moment she spoke: "What's with you, Neji? Gingerale was just killed, and you're fine with that? You seem... happy..." Her voice was curious, not accusing, but as she said this her gaze got suspicious, but then that suspicion faded away.

"Everything happens for a reason, TenTen," he replied calmly, not turning to look at her.

The wind blew gently, ruffling Neji's hair. The sound of the wind stuck with him for a moment, soft and sweet...

The purr of the wind was just like Gingerale's.

**Well, this is it. This is the last chapter. Hope y'all injoyed :) I certainly enjoyed writing it... **

**If you're not happy with the ending... well, I don't have much to tell you. This is what I came up with. Like I said before (I think) this story didn't have a plot when I started writing it. It developed one as I went on. So... yeah. **

**Leave all your questions in a review. If there are enough, I'll make another chapter answering ALL of them :) **


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